


Married for a "Day"

by TheSoundOfThunderstorms



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Humor, Sweet, a vegas au, featuring gay disaster angela, supposed to be sweet and funny, that thing I wrote about on tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2018-11-01 07:39:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10917330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSoundOfThunderstorms/pseuds/TheSoundOfThunderstorms
Summary: Married for a day, the wedding experience without actually getting married. Except, maybe there's a few misunderstandings along the way.





	1. The Question

**Author's Note:**

> So the whole idea is that there's this place where you can get married for a day. The whole wedding experience without it being legally binding. Except, the same place that does 'married for a day' also does 'married in a day' weddings. Whoops.
> 
> A direct quote from my tumblr: "It’s sorta like one of those tried and true accidentally get married in Vegas things but like no one was drunk when it happened? I guess the idea is that there’s like a group vacation in Vegas for some reason and Angela really wants to go to one of those ‘married for a day’ places. It’s like a place where friends or lovers go to have the experience of getting married without actually getting married. So you know, dressing up, short ceremony, a kiss photo (doesn’t matter what kind of kiss), dancing, cake, a photo with the cake, etc. 
> 
> So she convinces Fareeha to go with her and whoops they accidentally go to one of those ‘married in a day’ places. Same setup, just law binding."
> 
> So that's pretty much what's going to be going on. Enjoy :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: May 29, 2017
> 
> So the fabulous budgiebum commissioned artwork of the blue jay scene in this chapter from the wonderful Chibikochibs on Twitter. They look so cute y'all. It's so good T-T Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
> 
> Just thank you, thank you, thank you. Don't know what I did to deserve such kindness T-T

Ana held her phone in one hand, the email she read catching all her attention. The top brass at the Gibraltar Headquarters of Overwatch, the multinational corporation that dealt in the manufacturing of shoes and athletic wear, had just issued her team a week’s fully paid vacation to any location they chose for the _outstanding_ job they just finished in China. She stood leaning against her desk in the small office they were renting in Shenzhen. Off in the corner sat Angela. Ana couldn’t tell what she was doing. The smile on the blonde’s face made the older woman think she might have been reading something funny.

“Hey Angela.”

The Angela’s head shot up from the monitor it was previously buried in. “Yes Ana?” Her eyes slowly made their way back to the screen, the picture of a married couple celebrating taking up most of her screen.

“Looks like the higher-ups thought we did a half-way decent job.” Ana waved her phone in the air. “We just got a vacation.” She slowly made her way to Angela’s little cubicle.

Angela ripped her eyes away from the screen, seeming very interested in the details of their supposedly earned vacation. “Oh? We going anywhere nice?”

A tap to the phone screen. “Says here that we get a fully paid vacation anywhere we want for a whole week.” She stopped by the empty cubicle next to Angela, leaning on the divider.

Angela felt her heart pounding. _Maybe we can go…_

“Got anywhere in mind Angela?”

“Oh um,” a quick look back to the computer monitor, “I’ve always wanted to go to Vegas.”

Ana immediately scrunched up her face. “Vegas?”

Angela swallowed her nerves down. “I’ve wanted to go for some time now.”

Ana held her chin in thought. Her eyes landed on the back of Angela’s computer monitor, seemingly deciding on something. She leaned forward to try and see what was on the screen. “Is that what you were looking at? Already planning your own trip?”

Angela nearly screeched, hastily clicking out of the twenty tabs she had up. Every single one of them showcasing different married couples. Before Ana could get a good look at her screen, she pulled up the decoy spreadsheet she always had handy.

“That’s…” Ana squinted her eye. “Those are numbers from three years ago.”

“That was a recorded breaking year.” Angela cleared her throat. “I find it inspiring.”

Ana wasn’t buying it. She crossed her arms, a pointed look directed at the blonde.

It didn’t even take a minute for Angela to break. “Okay, okay. Yes, that’s what I was looking at. I’ve always wanted to go. Check out the sights, the attractions.” She sighed. Deliberately choosing her words was taking a strain. “I just want to have fun.”

Ana still had that questioning look. She went to speak again, getting sidetracked when Fareeha came walking into the office, a variety of drinks held in a cardboard cup holder. Her eyes immediately zoomed in on the tea she ordered. “Ah, Fareeha I have good news.” Ana crossed the distance to her daughter and plucked her tea from the cup holder.

From where she sat, Angela could see the beautiful smile on Fareeha’s face. Her heart fluttered at the genuine display. Her fingers started moving on their own, clicking out of the decoy spreadsheet back to her web browser filled to the brim with wedding pictures. She couldn’t help but to look back at the screen.

Ana slowly tip-toed backwards towards Angela again. She put an unassuming arm on top of the divider and took a sip of her tea, craning her neck back to look at Angela’s computer monitor. She smiled at the pictures.

“What’s the good news?” Fareeha followed her mother, stopping beside a flustered looking Angela who was hurriedly clicking through a sea of tabs. She pulled out Angela’s coffee and extended it to the woman. “Here’s your coffee Angela.”

“T-thank you.” Angela could feel her cheeks burning with embarrassment. _Did Fareeha see? Oh god. Maybe she’s being nice and not saying anything about it._ She hid the urge to cover her face with the cup of coffee. _But Fareeha’s always nice._ She took a contemplative sip of coffee. _She wouldn’t make fun of me for looking at pictures._ Angela was startled out of her thoughts when Ana suddenly wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“We’re going to Vegas.” A slight nudge to Angela’s shoulders. “Isn’t that right Angela?”

“Y-yeah.”

Ana took the remaining drink orders from Fareeha’s hands. “I’ll go tell the others about it.” She made the quick walk to the big office across the room, disappearing behind the wooden door.

“So Vegas?” Fareeha leaned against the divider, the tea she managed to take out of the cup holder before her mother took off was held in both hands.

“Mmhm.” Angela could barely hold in her excitement. _This actually might happen._ She eyed Fareeha through sips of her coffee. _She might actually say yes._ The thought made her squeal internally. “It’s a vacation from the higher-ups.”

“Well that makes more sense.” Fareeha shifted so she was leaning over the divider. “I thought we we’re going to have to sell more shoes.” She smiled down at Angela. “It’d be nice to take a vacation with you.”

_And there’s that smile again._ “I’m looking forward to it.”

-

It was eight in the morning when everyone was boarded on the plane for the non-stop 18 hour trip from Shenzhen to Las Vegas.

Sitting on the row that overlooked the right wing was Reinhardt, Jesse, and Ana. The old man had brought a neck pillow, already fast asleep and snoring loudly before the plane even took off. Jesse sat between Ana and Reinhardt, his arms crossed and a pair of ear plugs shoved into his ears. His head was tilted forward, chin resting on his chest. A sleep mask covered Jesse’s eyes, following Reinhardt’s example. Closest to the aisle was Ana. The older woman had a pair of noise cancelling headphones on, a new book opened on her lap.

Gabriel Reyes, sat in the row opposite the trio. He was always in a bad mood. It might have something to do with the fact that he got demoted so far down, he ended up as Reinhardt’s assistant. He never talked about what he did, just did his job with a permanent scowl on his face and a menacing aura that kept people a good distance away. Gabriel sat slumped in his aisle seat, narrowed eyes flicking over to Reinhardt every now and then.

A couple of rows behind Gabriel sat Fareeha, Angela, and the young intern Hana. Hana had a pair of earphones connected to the handheld in her hands. She popped a piece of gum every now and then, muttering undiscernible words under her breath.

Fareeha had connected her earbuds to the audio jack, settling in her chair to watch the movie on the screen in front of her.

Angela hurriedly tried to open the headphones she bought from the flight attendant. Plugging them into the audio jack, she was met with mostly static, little audio blips coming in and out every now and then. _Cheap airline headphones._ She reached out a hand, gently shaking Fareeha’s shoulder to get her attention.

“Hmm?” Fareeha popped out an earbud to listen to Angela.

“I want to watch the movie.” Angela held up the broken headphones. “Mine aren’t working.”

“Oh um…” Fareeha reached into her backpack that sat underneath the chair in front of her. She pulled out a first aid kit, taking one of the alcohol swabs from the little kit. After wiping down the earbud, she offered it to Angela. “We can share.”

Angela giggled at the amount of effort that Fareeha went through just to let her use the earbuds. “Thank you.”

Throughout the movie, Angela noticed Fareeha nodding off. It was about fifty minutes in when she felt a weight on her shoulder. Fareeha had slumped over onto her shoulder, passed out cold. Her heart warmed at the feeling, picking up in pace when the sleeping woman cuddled up to her side.

Carefully, Angela stole the other earbud that Fareeha was obviously not using. Wedging her arm out from between them, Angela draped it around Fareeha’s shoulders, making it more comfortable for the them both.

-

Angela woke up with a start. She felt a herself being shaken awake from her warm and cozy slumber, lifting her head in response to the foreign feeling. Sleepy eyes blinked a few times, taking in the sight of other planes outside the window, signaling that they already landed.  _Just a few more minutes._ Angela snuggled back into the warmth and comfort of Fareeha’s chest, closing her eyes to try and relax a bit more.

Blue eyes snapped open, Angela darting up in her seat when she realized that was in fact intensely cuddling Fareeha. She wiped at the wetness that had gathered on her cheek, staring on in horror at the wet spot on Fareeha’s shirt collar.

“We uh,” Fareeha cleared her throat, “we just landed.” A small smile tugged on her lips at Angela’s embarrassed expression.

Angela just continued to stare at the spot of drool, wishing that the earth would hurry up and swallow her whole.

Fareeha reached up to touch the collar of her shirt, feeling the wetness that accrued there. “Don’t worry about it.” A reassuring smile. She brought her hand back down, wiping the drool off onto her pants. “It happens.”

_How is she so nice?_ Angela could only nod, sitting back into her chair and waiting patiently for them to announce that they could exit the plane.

It was noon when everyone had their bags in hand, walking out of the airport. Angela couldn’t help but look over to Fareeha every now and again and peek at the still noticeable spot of drool displayed on her shirt for everyone to see. Ana had noticed the spot immediately, commenting on how she could have sworn her daughter stopped drooling on herself when she turned seven.

“It happens,” said Fareeha. She shrugged, all the while giving Angela a small smile at the sight of her red face and ears. “I’ll just change when I get to the hotel.”

Outside, there was a large van waiting for them. The driver helped load their suitcases into the back, taking them to the hotel when everyone was situated.

“Woah, this is pretty nice.” Hana, stared with disbelief at the hotel they were going to be spending the next week at.

The van had dropped them off at The Vishkar, the young intern immediately impressed with their accommodations as soon as she stepped into her hotel room. The room had two full size beds with fancy looking bedspreads, two sets of couches, and a giant flat screen embedded into the wall. The view from the window overlooked the gigantic infinity pool.

Fareeha stepped into their shared room equally as impressed. “Really nice.” She ran her hand over the soft comforter, putting her bags down on the bed nearest the window. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a shirt. Fareeha stopped in her tracks when she walked into the bathroom. There was a shelf as tall herself filled to the brim with the fluffiest towels she has ever come across. A double sink with a variety of hand soaps and lotions. But what really caught her attention was the shower.

It took up a third of the room, its ceiling filled with water jets stretching from wall to wall. There was a touchscreen panel that could adjusted the jets from water pressure to how many were turned on. Fareeha ran back into the room and pulled out more clothes from her suitcase, saying something about suddenly having to take a shower.

-

Ana had finished unpacking her clothes into her dresser. She was lounging on her bed, reading a book on her tablet. From the corner of her eye she could see Angela sitting on the edge of her bed, staring intensely at her feet. “Something wrong Angela?” A smirk when the blonde squeaked at the sudden break in silence.

“Just thinking.” Angela shifted her gaze over to her mess of a suitcase. Once she got to the room, she immediately went to take a shower, dumping out half her suitcase to get at the clothes she wanted to wear. She really should fix her mess. But she also wanted to see if Fareeha would agree to her request.

It was like Ana could read part of her mind. “You could always fix that later. If you want to go out, then by all means…” She gestured towards the door. “You have time to get your things unpacked.”

It was still mid-afternoon. If Fareeha said no, she couldn’t just go back to her room and sleep away the disappointment. But… _I don’t have to ask her right now. I can just ask her later tonight._

Finding her resolve, Angela stood up from where she sat, walking to the edge of the bed to put on her shoes. “I’ll be back tonight.” She grabbed her room key from the side table and headed out.

On her way to Fareeha’s room, she passed by Gabriel opening the door to his shared room with Jesse. He had a bucket of ice in hand, his usual scowl gone from his face. Feeling less intimidated, Angela gave the man a hello, surprised when he nodded back. At the sight of Reinhardt leaving his room, Grabriel quickly shoved the door open, closing it behind him in a hurry.

Angela blinked at the closed door. _Nice talking to you too._ As she went to continue to Fareeha’s room, Reinhardt had caught up to her.

“Good afternoon Angela.”

“Good afternoon Reinhardt. How are you liking the single room?”

A laugh reverberated throughout the hallway. “It’s great! You know, that room was meant for Ana but she gave it to me since I snore so loud.”

Angela blanched at the thought of maybe ending up in the same room as Reinhardt. How his snoring would bounce off the wall creating a never-ending nightmare of echoed torture. _She saved us all._ “That is so thoughtful of her.” She stopped once they got to Fareeha’s room. “I need to speak to Fareeha about something, I’ll see you later Reinhardt.”

A nod. “Have a good day Angela.” Reinhardt kept walking, leaving Angela in front of the door.

A knock. Nothing. _Did they go somewhere?_ Another knock. This time Angela could hear some scrambling behind the door.

Hana opened the door, controller in hand and her attention focused on the TV. She muttered a quick ‘come in’ before hurrying back to one of the couches.

From where she stood in the doorway, Angela could see Fareeha sitting on the other couch, her eyes focused on the screen in front of her, fingers tapping the buttons of the controller in her hand. Relief flooded her eyes when she saw that Fareeha wasn’t still wearing the drool covered shirt anymore. _Maybe I should come back later?_

The next moment, Fareeha slumped her shoulders, a look of disappointment on her face. “I’m just not good at this game Hana.”

Hana leaned back into the sofa, a smug smile on her face. “Oh come on, that was just the seventh time you lost to me.” She placed the controller on the cushion next to her. A nod in Angela’s direction. “Oh, Angela’s here.”

“Angela?” A quick look towards the door. Fareeha couldn’t help but grin when she saw Angela standing by the door. “Hey. Come in, come in.” She stood up, quickly making her way over to the blonde. “How is it rooming with my mother?” A sympathetic look. “I would have roomed with her if Hana wasn’t so insistent on rooming with me.”

Angela waved the concern away. “It’s fine. She’s got that ‘Amari charm’ she boasts so much about.” She cleared her throat. “I wanted to ask if…” In the background, Hana could be heard shouting ‘nerf this’ at the screen. Fareeha crossed her arms, shaking her head and grinning at the intern’s outburst. It was so hard to focus on her words when Angela had Fareeha Amari standing right in front of her showcasing that stellar smile. “If you…”

Fareeha couldn’t help but laugh when she heard Hana’s frustrated outbursts. She tried to compose herself, knowing that Angela was trying to ask her something. “I’m sorry, you were saying?”

“I just wanted to see if you’d like to go out with me today.”

“I’d be happy to. Just um,” Fareeha brought Angela’s attention to the clothes she was wearing, “give me a moment to change. I’m in my sleep clothes. Didn’t think I’d venture out today.”

Angela homed in on the bunny rabbit pajama pants Fareeha wore. Some of the rabbits had top hats, others nibbled on carrots. There were patches on the knees with bundled up bunnies snuggling. _So cute._ “No problem. I’ll be waiting on the couch.”

Angela watched Fareeha with an amused smile as she scrambled to her dresser and pulled something out, disappearing into the bathroom in record time. She walked over and took the seat Fareeha was previously sitting in. The blonde was surprised when Hana put down her controller, focusing all her attention on Angela.

“Going on a date?” A slight curve at the edge of her lips.

“A d-date?” Angela frantically looked over to the closed bathroom door. _Does Fareeha think it’s a date?_ “Hana I don’t know wh-”

“Ah, ah,” interrupted Hana. She waggled a finger at Angela, a smug smirk plastered on her face. “We both know you want it to be a date.”

Angela visibly deflated. _No use in hiding it._ “How long have you known?”

Hana leaned back, casually crossing her arms. She shrugged. “Since my first day.”

Angela’s jaw dropped. “That was six months ago!” Her eyes grew even wider. “Do you think anyone else knows?”

“Well…” Hana took a moment to think. “I’m always paying attention so that’s how I know. I think the only other person with enough of an attention span to pick up on it would be Ana.” A small frown. “Ana always knows when I’m playing a game instead of working. She can be pretty spooky.”

Pale hands rose to cover Angela’s face. _Of course she would know. Ana always knows._ She just sat there, feeling the sudden rush of heat traveling up her neck, her ears burning from the sudden revelation. _And I’m sharing a room with her for a week._ Angela slightly lowered her hands when she felt an arm around a shoulder.

Hana gave Angela’s shoulder a reassuring pat. “Don’t worry about it Angela. I’m rooting for you. I’m sure Ana is too because I’m pretty sure she would have found a way to have you kicked off the team a long time ago if she didn’t like you.”

Somehow that was reassuring. Angela moved her hands down further, head turning to look at Hana. “Yeah?”

A nod. “Positive.”

Fareeha walked out the bathroom, sleep clothes folded in her arms. She spotted Angela and Hana sitting close to each other on one of the couches. Angela beamed a brilliant smile her way, Hana giving her a short wave.

“Lookin’ good for your date Fareeha.” Hana shook Angela’s shoulder. “Right Angela?”

Angela was stuck between feeling mortified at Hana’s comments and giddy at the sight of Fareeha’s blushing. She felt another shake of her shoulders, receiving a pointed look from Hana. Angela cleared her throat. “Yes, yes of course.” She shook out of Hana’s arm and stood up, taking a step closer to the taller woman. “You look beautiful.” And Fareeha really did look beautiful. Blue dress that stopped at her just below her knees, wadjat necklace hanging off her neck, and golden beads weaved into her hair, Angela couldn’t help the deep thumping of her heart.

Fareeha felt her blush darken at the compliment. “Thank you.”

“Ready to go?” asked Angela.

Fareeha hurried dropped her folded clothes on her bed, reaching over and grabbing her room key. “Yeah, let’s go.”

The sounds of game music playing through the speakers filled the room. “Have fun guys.” Hana was once again focused on the TV, smiling when she heard the door to her room close.

-

“Did you have any place in mind?” Fareeha was handling one of the free maps from the hotel.

_Yes._ “Oh no, I just want to see what they have around the hotel.”

“Okay.” Fareeha pointed to a spot on the map. “If you don’t mind, we could check of the botanical gardens. It’s not far.”

“That sounds perfect.”

Twenty minutes of pleasant walking later, they were standing at the front entrance paying for their tickets. Fareeha pulled out the company credit card, sliding it over to the attendant in the window. They got their tickets and started the walk inside.

“I wasn’t too sure what the ‘all expense paid’ part of our vacation meant but mother assured me that Overwatch would pay for everything. Well, as long as we didn’t go out buying yachts or something.”

“Oh? So, what if we wanted to go to the casinos?”

Fareeha suddenly remembered the other part of the conversation she had with her mother. “Oh that. We can go, but we each have a limit.”

Angela widened her eyes at the information. “How much is the limit?” A little more thinking. “And what about Hana, she’s just 19.”

“Five-hundred, each.” Fareeha suddenly looked sheepish. “Mother may or may not have the Hana problem under control.”

“What’d she do?”

“She might have taken Hana out to get a fake ID made when we were still in Shenzhen.”

_Of course she would._ “I should have seen that coming.”

Fareeha shrugged her shoulders. “She wants to take everyone out for a night of gambling. It’d be no fun for Hana if she had to do something else.”

A chuckle. “Well, the boss gets what the boss wants. Doesn’t she?” Angela saw the first exhibit, excitedly grabbing Fareeha’s arm. “Look, it’s the one with the birds.” She picked up the pace, dragging Fareeha along with her.

The center piece of the exhibit was a gigantic blue jay with its wings outstretched. Angela immediately took them there, bringing her phone out if front of them to take a picture. While Angela was busy, admiring the, in her opinion, perfect photo, Fareeha suddenly stood stock still.

“Angela.”

“Hmm?” Angela was still busy setting the photo as her new lock screen. She looked up, glee setting in her face at the sight. “You have a new friend!”

Atop Fareeha’s head, coincidentally, was a blue jay. The little bird chirped and hopped along Fareeha’s head, content to be where it stood. “Is it…” Fareeha watched as Angela took a picture.

[](https://www.flickr.com/gp/155381784@N04/26yMi2)

This one was Fareeha’s new contact picture. “Is it what?”

“It’s not going to poop on me is it?”

Angela chuckled at the thought. “I can’t be sure what it’s going to do.”

“Can you…” Fareeha closed her eyes when she felt the bird hop again. “Can you shoo it away?”

“And why don’t you do it?”

“It might, you know...”

Angela relented at seeing Fareeha’s desperate plea. A quick wave of her hand and the bird flapped away, leaving Fareeha’s hair slightly mussed. “I thought you liked birds.”

Fareeha had reached up to fix her hair. “I do. Just not on top of me where they can leave a present.”

“I see your point.” Angela held out her phone for Fareeha to see. “Cute though right?”

Fareeha couldn’t help the grin at seeing the photo of her. She had both arms held up, trying to keep her body balanced with the bird perched on top of her head. Definitely a fun picture. She blinked when Angela put her phone away, pointing to the bushes shaped liked flamingoes in a sea of blue flowers.

“They made flamingoes!”

And off they went, Fareeha once again being dragged to wherever Angela wanted.

-

The walk back to the hotel was filled with detours and small adventures. At one point, they walked into a sidewalk performance of some new up and coming rap group, standing with the small crowd to watch the rest of the show. Angela had bought their cd afterwards, saying that those guys were going to be famous one day.

Near the hotel was an ice cream shop. The line wrapped around the building but they found a way to entertain each other while they waited. They mostly went over the pictures Angela took, Fareeha occasionally asking for the blonde to send a picture she really liked. When they could finally order their ridiculously expensive ice cream, Angela got a simple chocolate single scoop and Fareeha ordered a double scoop of some cookie dough cheesecake concoction. On the small walk back to the hotel, Fareeha managed to get to the cone before Angela did, crunching through the sweet goodness with a huge grin on her face.

Even after having such a good time with Fareeha, Angela got more nervous with each step back to the hotel. It got to the point where she was practically shaking in the elevator. _Just ask her. That’s all you have to do. If she says no, I can sulk in my room for the rest of the night._ “Fareeha?” The elevator stopped at their floor, the doors opening.

They stepped out into the hallway, the two of them staying near the elevator.

“Yeah?” Fareeha could see the nerves radiating off Angela.

Angela shifted her weight from one leg to the other, grabbing her elbow and keeping her gaze anywhere that wasn’t Fareeha. She opened and closed her mouth again and again. Nothing.

“Do you need mo-”

“I want to get married,” Angela blurted out. A second later she tacked on, “For a day.” She lifted her head up, locking eyes with Fareeha. “With you.”

“You want to marry me?” Fareeha’s thoughts were racing. She could feel the blood pumping in her ears at Angela’s sudden forwardness.

Wide eyed, Angela realized her big mistake. _She has no idea what I’m talking about._ Hurriedly, she reached for her phone, opening the web browser to show Fareeha what she meant. With shaky hands, Angela showed Fareeha the web page. “Here, look.”

Fareeha took the offered phone, looking at the words on the screen.

“It’s a place where people go for the wedding experience without actually getting married.” Angela went back to looking at everything but Fareeha. “And I thought it would be perfect to do it with you.” Her heart sped up at the last few words.

Fareeha continued to read the web page, quieter than usual.

_No use in backing out now._ “So, will you go with me?”

Fareeha slowly handed Angela back her phone.

Angela felt her heart sink at the blank expression. _I shouldn’t have asked._ “It’s okay. You don’t have to say yes. It’s stupid, I know.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“So, I’ll just see you tomorrow okay?” Angela blinked, her mind rewinding the last ten seconds. “What?”

A smile. “I’ll go with you.”

And now her heart was about to burst. Excited. Angela was suddenly so excited. _She said yes._ She closed the distance between them, bringing Fareeha in for a crushing hug. “Thank you, thank you.” Putting a little distance between them, Angela looked up into smiling brown eyes. “Thank you so much.” She leaned up and gave the taller woman a quick peck on the cheek, quickly detaching herself and starting down the hallway in a skip. “I’ll text you the details tonight.” She made it to her room, sliding the key card in.

A lingering pause at the door. “Just, thank you Fareeha. Have a good night.”

Fareeha was left standing at the end of the hallway, watching as an excited Angela waved at her and disappeared into her room. She reached up to touch her tingling cheek, heart still hammering away. “Good night.”

 

 


	2. The "Wedding"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, the wedding that's not really a wedding. Except, maybe they should have paid more attention.

The next morning, Hana and Fareeha were standing outside the place Angela specified in her text. Fareeha looked up at the giant neon sign that read “Married for a Day/in a Day”.

“This is it yeah?” Hana was looking over her sunglasses, eyeing the place up and down.

“I think so.”

The bell on the door rang, Hana and Fareeha stepped inside. The lobby was small and empty, robot Elvis in the corner singing to a potted plant.  After a couple more seconds, robot Elvis froze, little tendrils of smoke coming out of his mouth and the music slowly faded away. The old man at the front desk looked up at the sudden quiet, his face scrunching up at the sight.

A bang on the door behind him. “Someone get in here and fix Elvis. He’s broken again.”

A lanky teenager came barreling out of the door with a tool bag slung over his shoulder. He ran right passed Hana and Fareeha, kneeling down in front of the malfunctioning Elvis. “We’ll get you fixed up Mr. Elvis Sir.”

“You two here to get married or what? Just been standing there.” The old man was looking at his computer screen, casually reaching into the bowl of candy on the desk meant for the guests.

Fareeha quickly pulled out her phone, scrolling through the sea of text messages Angela sent her. She walked up to the counter, after re-reading the information from her phone. “Oh uh, not us.” Fareeha gestured between her and a smirking Hana to the man who was obviously not paying attention. She cleared her throat. “But I do want to set up an appointment for the ‘For a Day’ deluxe package.”

Tired fingers started typing away. “…day, deluxe…” Another stolen candy. “All right, I’m gonna need you to fill out these forms.”

Fareeha was handed a stack of papers, bulging her eyes out at the complexity of the information needed. _This is thorough for a fake wedding._ She grabbed the stack of papers, taking a seat off to the side to start filling them out.

Fareeha had to text Angela at her hair appointment to properly fill out her information, getting the go ahead from the blonde to sign for her. The entire time Fareeha was filling out the stack of forms, Hana was still at the counter, eating candy from the candy bowl.

Fifteen minutes later Fareeha was at the counter again, sliding the papers across to the old man. “Is that it?”

The old man went through the papers, squinting every now and then and muttering to himself. He typed something into the computer and shoved the papers in an envelope. “You bringing rings or getting rings?”

A quick scroll through the text messages. “Uh yes, we’d like rings.”

“…rings.” He looked up from the screen again. “She gonna be your witness?” He gestured his chin towards Hana.

“Sure.” Hana gave a shrug, popping a pink bubble in her mouth.

“…witness, yes.” The old man leaned back into his swivel chair. “Soonest I can fit you in is four this afternoon. That sound good?”

“Yes, that sounds perfect.”

A couple clicks on the cash register. “Alright, all that comes out to $1,500.”

Fareeha blanched. “That much?”

“Yep.”

Fareeha hurriedly texted Angela again, her eyes threatening to pop out again when all Angela replied with was the ‘ok’ hand and a winky face. Taking out her wallet she pulled out Angela’s credit card, handing it over to the old man. Angela didn’t want Overwatch to pay for her fake wedding, thrusting her credit card in Fareeha’s hand before she left for her hair appointment.

The old man stared at the card for a bit, looking at the letters that spelled out ‘Angela Ziegler’ and Fareeha. It looked like he was going to say something but decided against it. He just shrugged, sliding the card through and handing it back to Fareeha. “Have a nice day.”

-

The clock on the wall ticked by slowly. Fareeha sat in a room by herself, anxious watching as the clock got closer and closer to four. The wedding dress they provided her with brushed against her legs, painted toes peeking out from the bottom. Hana had done her hair when they got back from making the appointment, adding some light make-up last minute. She was hurriedly rushed out of the hotel before Angela could run into her on accident.

And there she sat alone, waiting until it was time for their appointment. _Maybe I should’ve invited mother?_ The thought of marrying Angela made her feel restless, her leg bouncing up in down in anticipation. _We’re not actually getting married._ She took a deep breath. Her heart was still pounding. _But it feels like we are._ Fareeha closed her eyes trying to push away the anxiety. _That’s the whole point of this, to make it seem like a real wedding._

The clock struck four. Fareeha felt her heart go into overdrive. A knock at the door signaled that she was supposed to go. _Okay, okay. I can do this._ A quick jump from foot to foot. _And it’s with Angela. She’s just so…_ A warm smile covered her face. _I can do this._

Two tuxedoed workers stood in front of the double doors that lead to where the ceremony was to take place. Fareeha gave them a small nod, watching as they opened the door for her.

The first step in and Fareeha was already amazed at the amount of effort that was put this. In the front of the rows of seats sat a little crowd of people. They were all dressed up, smiles on their faces. _They even have fake wedding guests._ Fareeha noticed Hana sitting near the back with her legs propped up. The intern gave Fareeha a casual wave, mouthing “You look nice” to her and giving a thumbs up.

In the corner stood a professional looking photographer. She motioned for Fareeha to smile. Fareeha felt her lips quirk up, smiling at the little dance the photographer put on to get the results she wanted.

At the end of the aisle, the wedding clerk leaned over and whispered, “Congratulations.”

Fareeha just smiled and nodded, impressed with how into their job the staff was.

The doors opened again and Fareeha felt her breath catch. In came walking Angela, her flowing wedding dress hanging perfectly, a bouquet of flowers in hand, and a blush running across her cheeks. She spotted Fareeha at the end of the aisle, giving her the most beautiful smile she’d ever seen. _Is this what heaven feels like?_ Fareeha couldn’t wipe away the adoring smile on her face. _She looks so happy._ Another thud to her heart. _She looks so beautiful._

Angela stopped next to her at the end of the aisle, her smile never fading. She took one hand off her bouquet, sliding it through Fareeha’s arm, teeth peeking through upturned lips when Fareeha got the hint and moved closer.

“Thank you all for joining us as we celebrate the union between…”

The words of the clerk faded away. Fareeha was too enamored with the sight of Angela to pay attention. The way the blush still stained her cheeks, how Angela would reach up to tuck a blonde strand behind her ear, and how whenever Angela would look up at her, her smile would only grow. _If this isn’t heaven, this is close enough._

Fareeha was shook out her thoughts when she heard that they were supposed to exchange vows. It felt like her heart was about to explode. _Wedding vows. I…I forgot that we were supposed to come up with wedding vows._ Angela detached from her arm, facing Fareeha, her blush darkening. Fareeha felt some relief with Angela going first.

“Fareeha, you are my best friend.” Angela cast her eyes downward, her ears starting to change color. “I love you. I promise that will never change.” Tears started to collect.

Fareeha felt Angela’s words cutting through her. Without thinking she started speaking. “I love you too.” Her heart thundered against her chest at the connotations of the words she spewed in the heat of the moment. _Either way it’s true._ She reached out, holding both of Angela’s hands in hers, watching as the blonde already started crying. “I promise that I’ll always be there for you, whenever you need me.”

A cute little boy walked out of the aisle, two rings sitting on a plush looking pillow. He held up the pillow, eyes sparkling with joy.

Fareeha was the first to pick up a ring, holding out Angela’s left hand and sliding it on her ring finger. They stood a moment as Angela clutched onto her hand, tears streaming down her face. Fareeha watched Angela close her eyes and take a deep breath, nodding when she was ready to keep going.

Angela reached down and picked up the other ring, chuckling when the little boy scampered back into the aisle he came from. She reached out a shaky hand, slowly putting the ring on Fareeha while trying to die from how happy she was.

“And by the power invested…”

They didn’t hear what the clerk was saying, too focused on each other to care. Fareeha brought a hand up, wiping away the tears that spilled down Angela’s face. Angela leaned into the touch, heart hammering away from their words exchanged, from how close they were.

“You may now kiss.”

They looked at each other stunned.

 _Should we just…?_ Fareeha looked on at Angela, a question lingering in her eyes.

Angela ran her thumb over their held hands, a reassuring gesture. _Just a kiss on the cheek._

“Just do it, it’ll make a great picture,” yelled Hana from the back.

And they stiffened up once again. Angela was looking down at the red carpet, steam coming from her ears at Hana’s suggestion. But then she felt warm fingers under her chin, coaxing her into looking at those perfect brown eyes. A reassuring smile and she knew that everything was going to be okay.

 _I died, I must have died._ The feel of Fareeha’s soft lips on hers sent Angela reeling into another world. _My heart must have exploded and I’m experiencing some sort of afterlife._ But then Fareeha pulled away, wrapping a secure arm around her waist and pulling Angela closer to her warm side. She felt her jackrabbit heart slow down and reveled in the afterglow of the kiss.

The fake crowd behind them were cheering, the clerk in front smiling and saying “congratulations” again. They started walked down the aisle, hand in hand, the crowd behind them. The two attendants at the door led everyone down the hallway to were the reception was held.

Angela let out an audible gasp at the size of the cake, bubbling over with glee when she saw the cake toppers that represented Fareeha and herself. Her attention was ripped away from the cake when an announcer called them to the dance floor, the lights dimming, and spotlights signaling where they were supposed to stand.

Heart fluttering, Angela hastily threw her bouquet of flowers behind her, grinning at Hana’s voice screaming, “It’s mine,” above the din of the crowd. Angela didn’t care to look back at the chaos that ensued behind her, too entranced with the way Fareeha gently led them to the dance floor, eyes never leaving her own.

A slow song played. If they had cared enough to pay attention, Angela and Fareeha would have seen that they just wheeled in the robot Elvis from the lobby and hooked him up to the speaker system.

With her arms hooked around Fareeha’s neck, Angela enjoyed the feeling of swaying around with her head laying on Fareeha’s shoulder.

“Thank you so much for this Fareeha.” Angela smiled into warm skin. “This was so much more than I thought it was going to be.”

“You don’t have to thank me. This was…” A moment where they both stilled. “Intense. It just felt so real.”

“And is that a good thing or…?”

“To have the experience of getting married to you? That could never be a bad thing.” Fareeha picked up Angela, twirling her to the change of the music. “Is that Elvis playing?”

Angela giggled when she looked over Fareeha’s shoulder, finding a dancing Elvis hooked up to the speaker system. “Look.”

“T-they just dragged him in here from the lobby!” Fareeha turned back around when she felt Angela’s hands on her shoulders. “I swear he stopped working this morning.”

Angela leaned up, placing a quick kiss to Fareeha’s cheek, giggling at the taller woman’s sudden shy expression. “I believe you.”

-

Dinner was, in Hana’s words, to die for. The young intern grabbed everyone’s attention by giving a long-winded speech, making up details on how the two met and proclaiming how she always knew they would end up together. Afterwards, Hana didn’t speak a peep because she was too busy devouring everything on her plate.

Angela and Fareeha cut the cake together, making a show of feeding each other when they each had a piece. The two of them were in too deep with the wedding persona that they just went with the flow. Meanwhile, Hana kept going back for more cake, saying that she was glad she came because the food was so good.

When it neared seven, one of the staff politely walked over to the ‘newlyweds’ and said that their delegated time was nearly up. Robot Elvis was already wheeled back to the lobby, their fake wedding guests all gone. Sighing, Angela stood up from their table, hands clutching at her dress to make the walk back to the changing rooms easier.

With a small frown on her face, Angela was leaning against the counter in the lobby waiting for the rest of their order to finish.

Fareeha saw how sad she looked, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder to try and cheer Angela up. “Hey, I had a good day today.”

“Me too.” A huff. “The problem is that it’s over.”

 _Well I can’t fix that._ “Maybe the pictures will cheer you up?”

“Oh I know they will.” Angela slumped further onto the counter. “I just need to get my hands on them to start feeling better.”

As if on cue, a cheerful looking attendant came walking through the door behind the counter. “Hello lovely newlyweds!”

 _They really get into character here._ Fareeha gave the woman a small wave.

“So, with the deluxe package you get: the photo album, the t-shirts, the gift basket, coffee mugs and the top tier of the cake.” The attendant could barely put down the items in her arms before Angela started making grabby hands at the photo album. “Here you go miss.”

Angela tore the album from the woman’s hands, quickly opening it up on the counter. She blindly reached out an arm, bringing Fareeha closer to her when she felt the material of the other woman’s shirt. “The photos are so beautiful. Look at us.” The album had about fifty photos, all of them seemingly perfect. Angela stopped at the photo that showed the two of them kissing. She started crying all over again. Seeking comfort, Angela buried her face in Fareeha’s shirt, wrapping her arms tightly around her shoulders and letting the floodgates open.

Fareeha just rubbed Angela’s back soothingly, trying her best to calm her down. Her eyes peeked over to Hana going through the other souvenirs, smiling when the intern raised up the pink t-shirts that had a picture of them dancing on the front. Hana also showed off the coffee mugs that had Angela and Fareeha feeding cake to each other.

Angela peeled away from Fareeha after a couple of minutes of crying, diving straight back into the photo album. She was able to get through the rest of them without reverting back to a sobbing mess. Once she reached the end, Angela shrieked with glee. “Look, look, look.” She pointed to the thumb drive embedded in the back of the album. “This has a digital copy of the pictures and the video recording.” She started jumping on the balls of her feet. “This is everything I wanted.”

“What about the shirts?” Fareeha reached over and pulled a shirt out in front of Angela, smiling when the blonde let out another shriek.

“They’re so perfect.” She grabbed the shirt, hugging it to her chest. Watery blue eyes locked onto the patiently waiting attendant. “I love everything.”

“I’m glad you are satisfied with our services.” The attendant slipped a piece of paper onto the counter. “If you would all sign this, you can all be on your way.”

Angela took a look at the piece of paper, skimming to the highlighted bits. _No name change._ She grabbed a pen and scribbled in ‘Amari’. _I can be an Amari for the day._ Satisfied, she signed the bottom of the paper.

Fareeha smiled when she saw the scribbled in Amari. Too endeared to read the rest of the paper, she just signed at the bottom, giving the paper to Hana.

Hana didn’t even bother to read anything, just signed her name under the witness section and gave it back to the smiling attendant.

“Thank you all so much. Have a wonderful day.”

-

Once back at the hotel, Angela promised to send Fareeha a digital copy of the photos. She gave excitedly gave Fareeha a farewell kiss on the cheek and happily skipped away to her room, photo album clutched in her arms and a pink t-shirt slung over her shoulder.

Closing the door behind her, Angela took off her shoes and dived straight for her bed. She immediately went to look at the pictures again, a certain glee overcoming her every time she relived each moment. Angela didn’t hear the door open, too busy staring at the kiss photo again.

“Did you just get married to my daughter? And without even telling me?”

Angela felt her soul leave her body, turning over on the bed to see Ana standing with her arms crossed, a frown over taking her features. The older woman had a clear view of the photo album. “A-ana I can explain!”

“Fareeha asked me to give you this.” Ana held up the mug with their faces plastered on it in the air. “Now the picture on it makes much more sense.” She had a perked eyebrow, waiting for Angela to begin her explanation.

“We didn’t actually get married. It was just a pretend wedding.” _An expensive pretend wedding. So worth it for those pictures though._ “It’s something friends or lovers do for fun. I just wanted to try it out.”

Ana still looked skeptical. “With Fareeha?” She smirked at the nervous look on Angela’s face.

“I, well.” _Oh god, Hana was right. Just look at that smirk. She knows._

“Can I see?” Ana pointed to the photo album. She watched as Angela shyly handed over the photos, the blonde suddenly finding the sheets very interesting. “My, my, this doesn’t look like a fake wedding.” Ana didn’t have to look up to know that Angela was thirty shades of red.

And Ana found herself smiling at the photos, too caught up in her daughter’s happy face to be mad that they didn’t invite her to the wedding, even if it was fake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was fun. I'm trying my best to hold back my excitement over writing what happens next. It's gonna be wild.


	3. Casino Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ana suddenly wants to go to the casino.

A sleepy hand rose from the warm comfort of the blanket in an attempt to block out the sun peeking out from the curtains. Fareeha sighed when the brightness still managed to seep through her fingers. She rolled over, covering her head with the pillow and closing her eyes tight. It seemed to be working. Fareeha could feel the familiar pull of sleep dragging her back to her precious dreams.

In an act of betrayal, her stomach grumbled loudly. _There goes sleeping in._ Fareeha threw the covers off, grumpily sitting up to wake up faster. She looked over to the other bed, seeing Hana sprawled about and pleasantly knocked out sent a pang of jealously pulsing through her veins. Another hunger pang. _Okay, okay. I get it._ Fareeha yawned, slinking out of bed and unbunching her red cat print shorts as she stood up.

She sleepily stumbled toward the bathroom. It all happened in a blur. One minute she was brushing her teeth, the next she had a pair of slippers on, already halfway out the door to the room. _That wasn’t so bad._ Room key tucked in her shorts and phone in hand, Fareeha made her way towards the elevator. She was surprised to see Gabriel up so early as well.

Gabriel seemed to look considerably less grumpy. He was even humming to himself on the elevator down. She took that as a good sign and tried to strike up some small talk. “Enjoying the vacation Reyes?”

“MmHm.” He nodded his head slowly. “I forgot how good life was when I don’t have to do everything the old man says.”

Fareeha wanted to point out that Reinhardt wasn’t that much older than him, deciding against it at the last second when the elevator doors opened to the ground floor.

They walked into the dining room where there was already a plethora of breakfast foods. Fareeha made a beeline for the waffles, filling her plate with the fluffy goodness and a side of eggs. There were five different flavors of syrup. Fareeha used three of them, one for each layer of waffle. She filled up a cup with orange juice and went to find a seat.

Gabriel was already sitting down. It looked like he only had a cup of coffee and a plate of slightly burned toast. Fareeha took the seat opposite him, his good mood making him more approachable.

Gabriel absentmindedly reached for his toast, dipping it in his coffee. He was busy reading one of the brochures left on the table, taking large bites of the coffee dipped toast all the while. When he was done reading the brochure, bite of toast in his mouth, he nearly choked when he saw the gold ring on Fareeha’s finger.

Fareeha paused in eating her eggs, concerned that Gabriel seemed to be choking in front of her. “Are you okay?”

Gabriel reached for the remnants of his coffee, downing it in one go. He pounded his chest a couple of times, recovering from the effects of his choking. He pointed to the ring. “Did you really get married in _Vegas_? Don’t tell me it was one of those tacky drive-thru weddings.”

Fareeha looked down at her hand, already feeling her face going hot at Gabriel’s surprise. _I forgot I was still wearing it._ She tried to explain the ring. Nothing but shy smiles, stuttering and clipped words. She felt her phone buzz on the table, making a quick ‘wait’ gesture towards Reyes before checking her text message.

Fareeha felt her jaw drop as she read the message.

_Dear Mrs. and Mrs. Amari,_

_We are happy to congratulate you on your recent marriage. Thank you for choosing us for your wedding needs._

_This is just a text reminder informing you, as comes with the deluxe package, that everything has been rushed processed and you are both recognized in your marital status wherever that may apply. The exact details have been emailed to you._

_We wish you a happy marriage._

_Sincerely,_

_All of us here at Married for a Day/in a Day_

Fareeha sat slumped in her chair just staring at the screen. _I really did…_ She looked back to Gabriel with an expectant look on his face. “I…did get married.”

“Were you drunk?” A shake of the head. He could see Fareeha mouthing the word ‘no.’ Gabriel picked up his last piece of toast chewing it thoughtfully. “Who’d you get married to then?”

Fareeha felt her stomach drop out. Her heart was fluttering away and her cheeks were back to feeling burning hot. “…Angela.”

Gabriel slammed his hand of the table, trying his best not to choke again. He managed to swallow his bite of toast, looking at Fareeha with wide eyes. “You married Angela?”

A nod.

His lips upturned in a grin. Reaching over, Gabriel gave Fareeha a pat on the shoulder. “Congratulations.” He sat back down, crossing his arms and looking at Fareeha with pleasant surprise.

Fareeha managed to mutter out a quick ‘thank you’ before shooting up from the table, dishes in hand. On her way to put away her dishes, she dialed her mother’s number. Ana picked up after three rings.

“ _Fareeha, it’s seven in the morning._ ”

“I need to talk to you.” Fareeha was standing in front of the elevator waiting for it to come down.

“ _Can’t it wait?_ ”

“Just…it’s important. Meet me at my room okay?”

There was silence on the other line. Fareeha was afraid her mother fell asleep on her. Ana spoke again when the elevator dinged.

“ _Okay.”_

Relieved, Fareeha quickly got in the elevator, keeping a thumb on the close doors button so no one else could get on. _It’ll be okay._

By the time Fareeha made it to her room, Ana was already waiting by her door.

“What’s going on?”

Fareeha’s eyes zoned in on Ana’s door down the hallway. “We’ll talk inside.” She pulled out her room key, opening the door and pulling Ana inside in the span of three seconds.

Brown eyes examined the room, homing in on Hana who was still asleep in bed. _Not taking any chances._ Fareeha continued to drag her mother towards the balcony, swiftly closing the sliding door behind them.

Ana watched her nervous daughter pacing in the small bit of space they had. _It’s seven in the morning and she won’t just get on with it._ A sigh. She reached out her hands and held Fareeha by the shoulders to stop the pacing. “Just spit it out.”

 “I got married yesterday.”

 _Was that it?_ Ana laughed. “Ah yes, Angela told me about it. Married for a day was it? Those were some lovely photos.”

A wave of nervous energy settled in her stomach. “Yeah, about that…” Fareeha twirled the ring on her finger, trying to find the right words. “I think we might have signed up for the wrong one. And now…” She didn’t have to finish her sentence for Ana to get the gist of it.

“So you got married. In Vegas. To Angela.” Ana crossed her arms, looking her daughter up and down.

It was like she shrunk three sizes under her mother’s gaze. Fareeha couldn’t make heads or tails whether Ana was mad at her. “…yes.”

Ana didn’t say anything. She just furrowed her eyebrows and tapped a finger to her elbow.

“Here.” Fareeha offered her phone. “It says it right there.”

Ana uncrossed her arm and took the phone. She read the text, going over it slowly. When she was done, she looked back to Fareeha, an unreadable expression on her face.

It was agony waiting for Ana to respond. The urge to start pacing around grew strong every second Ana continued to stare at her. Just when Fareeha was about to break down and pace about, she was suddenly pulled into a rib breaking hug. She was highly confused and desperate for air.

“Just tell me when you two give me grandchildren.”

Fareeha gasped when her mother loosened her grip. “You’re…not mad?”

“I was just messing with you.” A laugh. “Are you mad?”

Fareeha hurriedly shook her head, feeling the familiar flutter of her heart.

“Angela is more than I could ask for in a daughter in law.” A huff. “Even though she didn’t invite me to the wedding.”

 _She’s not mad. She’s actually not mad._ “So, what do I do?”

Ana let go of Fareeha, a serious expression on her face. “It’s up to you both to decide.”

“I need to talk to her.”

“The sooner the better Fareeha. She just woke up. I can leave the room to you both for a while.”

 _I can do this._ “Okay.”

-

 _Okay, okay. She probably won’t get mad._ Fareeha was standing in front of Ana and Angela’s shared room. _But I won’t know unless I knock._ She had been standing there for the past five minutes having an inner dialogue with herself.

She knocked.

“Just a moment!”

Fareeha could tell from the sound of Angela’s voice that she was still waking up. And then she could’ve sworn her heart stopped working when Angela opened the door. She was standing in the door way, blonde hair mussed, wearing the wedding t-shirt and holding onto a steaming cup with their picture plastered on it.

“Fareeha!”

If smiles could kill.

“Can I come in?”

Angela stepped aside. “Of course, come in.”

And of course, now that she was inside standing next to Angela, Fareeha couldn’t seem to find her words. “I um. I wanted to…”

Angela took a sip of her coffee, trying to piece together what Fareeha wanted to say. “Did you want to look at the photos again?” She pointed to the album splayed open on her bed. “They’re still very good.”

“Oh, um maybe after?”

Another sip. “So, what brings you here so early? Not that I’m complaining.”

 _Just spit it out. Just spit it out._ “Yesterday, it was a real wedding.”

 _I’m hearing things._ Angela felt her knees wobble. She extended an arm behind her, trying to feel for her bed. Her feet fumbled. She’d be looking at the ceiling if Fareeha hadn’t caught her mid fall. “…say that again.” Red streaks painted Angela’s face at the feeling of strong arms laying her gently on the bed.

Fareeha took a seat next to Angela. She pulled out her phone, getting to her most recent text message. “There must have been a mistake when I went to sign us up. I got a text this morning.” She handed the phone over to the still very dazed looking blonde.

 _Dear Mrs. and Mrs. Amari…_ And everything slowed down. _I must have died. That’s what happened. I really am experiencing some sort of afterlife._ Everything was impossibly hot. Angela could hear her heart pounding. _Oh god. What if she thinks that I tricked her into marrying me? It was my idea to go in the first place._ Blue eyes widened at the thought. And then she saw blackness.

“Angela?” Fareeha tried to shake her awake, concerned that Angela had fainted in the first place. She remained out cold. _Just keep calm. Angela passed out. No need to panic. This was probably a lot to process._ She got up from the bed, pulling the blanket over Angela. _I’ll just stay here. Make sure she’s okay._

-

 _Go away light._ Angela groaned when the offending light refused to do as she asked. She sleepily brought the blanket over her head, sighing in relief when the light was successfully blocked. Ten seconds later, the blankets were tossed to the side and Angela bolted upright. A quick scan of the room brought her gaze to Ana’s bed. Fareeha was tucked under the covers, sleeping soundly.

 _We’re married. We actually got married._ Angela grinned at the memory of the ceremony. It quickly morphed into a frown when she picked up on her last thought. _She probably thinks it’s my fault._ _And…_

Angela got up from the bed, silently making her way over to Ana’s bed. The bed gave way as she sat down. Black hair stuck to Fareeha’s mouth, the younger woman was on her back, and arm bent over her eyes. _She shouldn’t have to be stuck married to me._ Angela reached out and brushed away the stray locks of hair. _It’s not fair to her._

Reluctantly, Angela started to shake Fareeha awake. She couldn’t help the upturn of her lips when the sleeping woman would groan and try to ask for more time. “Fareeha, please wake up.”

“...just five more minutes, Angela.”

Angela watched as brown eyes snapped. A sudden rush of urgency shined through her body language.

“Angela.” Fareeha was sitting up, worried eyes looking over the blonde. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” Her heart pounded at the sight of pure relief flooding those eyes.

“When I told you what happened, you suddenly passed out. I didn’t want to leave you by yourself, so I stayed.”

“And then you decided to take a nap while you were at it?” Angela couldn’t help the grin at the guilty look in Fareeha’s eyes.

“Sorry about that…” Fareeha looked down at the blankets, suddenly finding the invisible lint more interesting.

“I’m just messing with you Fareeha. Thank you for staying with me.”

A fraction of a smile. Fareeha focused her gaze back to Angela. “It’s no problem.”

And then there was silence. They both knew what they had to talk about, but continuing to sit there on the bed seemed more and more appealing as time went on.

There was a minute of silence between them before Fareeha asked, “What do you want to do?”

And it was like someone had turned on the heat. Angela’s body suddenly felt very hot. It felt like her mind was short circuiting. She knew she was actively trying to stammer out a response, but she was too distracted by the racing thoughts in her head and the pounding of her heart. _We could get it annulled._ Angela instantly felt queasy at the thought. _It’d be the right thing to do._ Still nothing, not a single word left her mouth. _Don’t be selfish._

Everything stopped when the surprised blonde was enveloped in a hug. Her thoughts were on pause and she didn’t feel like she was burning alive. Angela felt her fast heartbeat slow down, relief flooding her system.

“We can take as much time as you need to figure this out.” Fareeha wrapped her arms tighter around Angela when she felt the other woman reciprocate the hug.

“Okay.” _But maybe I can be selfish for just a little longer?_ Angela buried her head in Fareeha’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

The door to the room slammed open, Ana stepped in, a huge smile on her face at the sight of Angela and Fareeha. “Are my daughters done talking? Because tonight we’re going gambling.”

Angela felt her eyes bulge open. _Daughter’s. Ana just called me her daughter._ _Fareeha must have told her before she came to see me. And Ana probably 200% knows about my feelings towards Fareeha._ Angela felt her head freeze. _Ana is my mother in law._ She would have fainted again if Fareeha wasn’t supporting her.

Tentatively, Angela peeked at the other Amari woman. _She doesn’t look mad. Seems to be smiling too._

“Well don’t just sit there, go get ready!” Ana chuckled as she watched Angela and Fareeha separate from each other, the both of them scrambling to get out of the bed. “See, now that’s the spirit!” She made her way to Fareeha, grabbing her daughter by the shoulders and started to push her towards the door. “Everyone is going to meet up at the hotel lobby in an hour.” Before Fareeha could even speak, Ana slammed the door in her face.

Ana whipped around, her gaze locking onto Angela.

Angela could feel Ana thinking. She had no idea what the older woman wanted to say to her.

“I forgot to tell you this morning but, I do like the shirt. It’s a lovely photo of the two of you.”

 _That’s it?_ “Thank you, Ana.”

“Oh, and before I forget, we should make time to watch the recording of the wedding. You know, the one I wasn’t invited to.”

 _And there it is._ “Of course.” _Best to please the mother in law. Plus, she’s still technically my boss._ “We can watch it tomorrow.” Angela visibly relaxed when she saw the pleased look on Ana’s face.

Ana finally let up on her stare down with Angela. She started sifting through her clothes, seemingly done with whatever conversation she was having with Angela. But of course, only Ana ever knew her true motives. “Do you have anything blue to wear?” She was holding two different socks, comparing the patterns.

“…blue?” Angela walked over to the dresser she haphazardly stuffed with her clothes. A quick rummage through and she found a few things. “I have a couple of shirts and a dress. Do we have to wear blue to the casino?”

“Oh no, nothing like that.” A devious smile. “It’s just that Fareeha’s favorite color is blue.” A small chuckle escaped her lips when she heard Angela fumble about.

“A-ana, just what are you-”

“Oh please Angela, you can stop pretending that I don’t know. I’ve always known your feelings for Fareeha. Since a year ago, your productivity has gone down thirty percent every time she’s even near you. And, you know, I let it slide because I thought it was cute. I assumed that you’d do something about it but here we are, a year later, and still nothing. You two are _married_ now.”

Angela couldn’t speak. If felt like her mouth was glued shut and someone was electrocuting her heart. She didn’t have to look in a mirror to know that the color of her face was akin to that Code Red stuff Hana liked to chug at work.

“But I’ll tell you this Angela. I like you. I think it would be wonderful if you and my daughter were actually together. So, I’m going to help you.”

Arms hung limply at her sides as Angela could only stare wide-eyed at the back of Ana’s head. _She wants to help me?_

“So, let’s start off with the blue dress.”

-

Fareeha and Hana were the first ones to make it to the hotel lobby. They had dressed up since there was a dress code for the hotel’s casino.

As Fareeha fiddled with the button on her suit jacket, she could see Hana out of the corner of her eye. The intern had both hands in the pockets of her fitted dress pants as she looked up at the ceiling popping the bubblegum in her mouth. She had on a white blouse and her hair was pulled up in a ponytail that poked through a black hat with the words ‘Queen Bitch of the Universe’ embroidered on. When asked about the phrase on the hat, Hana just shrugged and said she was ‘representing.’ It had to do with a game called Crafting Stars and some lady whose name was Care Again. Something like that.

The elevator dinged and out came Reinhardt, Jesse, and Gabriel. Gabriel was the first to leave the elevator, bolting out as soon as the doors opened. He was wearing what he usually wore to work. A nice shirt, nice pants, and a pair of shoes Fareeha could have sworn were brand new if it weren’t for the fact that she knew he wore the same pair every day for work. He apparently took very good care of his shoes.

Reinhardt and Jesse slowly made their way over. The two of them were laughing up a storm. Jesse looked like a formal cowboy and Reinhardt was wearing a standard tuxedo complete with the world’s tiniest bowtie. People in the lobby gave the two of them a wide berth.

“Hey uh, when can we go in?” Jesse asked as he took to standing by Fareeha.

“My mother has the money, so whenever she gets here.”

Jesse just nodded as he fiddled with the brim of his hat. “So hopefully she’ll be here soon. I want to get goin’ already. Betcha I’ll leave here with at least triple with what I started.” A smug look suddenly appeared on his face. “You’re lookin’ at a certified card shark. And to prove it to you, how about a bet?”

Fareeha crossed her arms. “I’m listening.”

“Okay, by the end of the night, if you end up with more money than me, I’ll get you lunch for a month. But if I have more money then you, you have to go out drinking with me tomorrow night.”

 _That doesn’t prove he’s good at cards. But…I can’t pass up lunch I don’t have to get for myself. And even if I do lose, it sounds like a fun night anyway._ “Okay. I’ll take your bet.”

Jesse gave Fareeha a firm pat on the back. “Then guess we’ll be hanging out tomorrow night.”

A shrug. “We’ll see.”

The elevator dinged again. Ana stepped out first wearing a very intimidating skirt and blazer combo. Fareeha had to do a double take when Angela walked out of the elevator.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen Angela in a dress before, there was just something different about it this time that caught Fareeha’s full attention. She couldn’t look away even if she tried.

Angela nearly jumped when she felt Ana nudge her in the side.

“See? She can’t take her eyes off you,” said Ana.

The floor suddenly seemed very interesting to the blonde. Were those diamonds in the tile? Before she knew it, Angela had bumped into the very same person she was blushing hard at the floor for. It was a shock to the system. “I’m so sorry Fareeha.” Fareeha just gave her that warm smile that could melt anyone within a fifty-meter radius.

“Don’t worry about it.” A pause. “You look nice by the way. There’s something different about you that I can’t quite pin down. Either way, I like it.”

Angela just stood there with steam coming out of her ears as Ana whispered in her ear, “It’s the blue,” all the while giving her those notorious expectant eyebrows. “Thank you. I think you look nice as well.” _I bet you could make a ratty t-shirt and pair of baby food green pants look like high fashion._

Ana butted in before Fareeha could thank Angela in turn. “All right. I’ve got the money right here.” She pulled out an envelope. Everyone eagerly gathered around in a semi-circle to get their money. “Have fun and please try not to lose all your money.”

Jesse was the first to take his money, spouting a short, “Wouldn’t dream of it,” before high-tailing it inside the casino that was to the left of the lobby.

-

She didn’t know how it happened but Angela found herself separated from the rest of the group. She had managed to wander over to the slot machines, the bright lights and the cheerful sounds enticing her to take a seat. It was five dollars to play. _Well, better start somewhere._

Angela watched as the colorful symbols of the reels spun around until they eventually stopped. _I won something!_ It was just six dollars, but that was the beginning of the end.

By the time one of the casino workers holding a tray of beverages walked up to her, Angela was hooked on the slot machines. She’d win some, lose a lot. Every time she told herself that the next game was her last, she’d win something and would continue to play with a newfound spark of encouragement.

“Would you like a drink ma’am? These drinks are complimentary of the casino.”

Angela ripped her eyes away from the enticing colors and lights. Her eyes widened in delight when she saw the giant margaritas sitting on the tray. “Yes, yes, yes.”

Now with a margarita in hand, Angela forget about all the previous transgressions with the slot machine and continued to funnel her money in without a care in the world. _Damn this is good. Definitely need more of these._

-

“Ma’am, can I see your I.D.?”

Hana was currently standing next to a rather remarkable pile of chips after winning her first game of craps. She went hard, betting all her money in one go. The payoff was miraculous and sweet. With an exaggerated sigh, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the impressively made fake I.D. she got with Ana in China.

“Here. Don’t lose it. I just got that made.”

The game attendant rose an eyebrow at the comment. “You just got this made?”

Another pop of bubblegum. “Yeah.”

“Stay here ma’am, I’ll be right back.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She waved him off. A devious smirk started to form. “Like I said, don’t lose it.” While she waited for the skeptical man to come back, she approached an old woman who was also playing craps. “Hey old lady, mind if I roll for you?”

The old woman turned around. She reached up and put on the thick rimmed glasses that were hanging around her neck. “Oh, young lady, you scared me a bit.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out one of those strawberry hard candies. “Did you want some candy?”

 _Oh hell yeah._ She eagerly took the offered candy, pulling out the gum from her mouth and saving it for later in an unspecified location on her person. Quickly unwrapping the sugary delight, Hana popped the red piece of candy in her mouth. Paradise. She was in heaven. “So, like I was saying before, think I could roll for you?”

The old woman blinked a few times. Her body shook slightly as she continued to stare at Hana. The intern was just about to give up when the woman finally spoke again. “You look just like my granddaughter.” She raised a shaky hand up and deposited a pair of dice in Hana’s eager hand. “Would you like to play for me?”

“You won’t regret it, granny.” Hana shook the dice in her hand, giving it a good couple of seconds to warm up the luck. “What are we shooting for?”

The old woman looked on at the table, her head bobbed every now and then in thought. “Can you get me an eleven dear?”

“I like the way you think old lady. Let’s go for it.” Hana blew on the dice and then tossed them onto the table. She watched with excited eyes as the pair of dice rolled to the other side of the table and bounced off the wall. _Come on._ One die stopped. A six. _Yes._ Anxious eyes tracked the other die, her heart pounding when it decided to spin in place before landing. “YES!” The die landed on five and everyone at the table was cheering.

“Oh, thank you so much dear.” Another strawberry candy was offered. “Here, have another.”

As Hana hurriedly popped the delicious candy in her mouth, the table attendant came back. He wasn’t alone.

A man with a manager tag pinned to his suit jacket approached Hana first. He handed Hana back her I.D. “We here at the Vishkar Casino would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused. Please accept our sincerest apologies Miss Song.”

“…’kay” Hana took back her I.D. She pulled out the gum from wherever she hid it and resumed chewing it.

The manager blinked at Hana’s nonchalance. He snapped his fingers and the table attendant approached her. He was carrying a gift basket of sorts. “This is a token of our apologies. Once again, please know we are truly sorry.”

Hana was suddenly holding the giant gift basket. Through the clear cellophane, she could see some luxury chocolate nestled next to a bottle of expensive looking whiskey. _Oh hell yeah. I can bribe the cowboy with this._ “It’s all good. Won’t get any lip from me.”

The casino manager looked visibly relieved. “Thank you so much for your understanding.”

-

Angela was sobbing. She had her forehead pressed against the screen of the slot machine, tears running down her cheeks. Both hands clutched desperately to her fifth giant margarita of the night. Things weren’t going well for her. A tap on her shoulder brought her out of her little island of misery.

“I’m sorry to bother you miss, but is there anything I can do for you?” The casino worker held a concerned expression on her face.

A sniffle. “I want my wife.” Angela wiped some of the tears away, taking another sip of her drink. “She’s the most beautiful one here.” The tears started falling again. “I don’t know how, but we got separated. And, and I ended up next to this godforsaken machine.” She downed the rest of her drink, handing it over to the concerned worker. “Amari. She’s an Amari, _I’m_ an Amari. Fareeeeha. I want my wife, I want my wife.” Angela pressed her forehead against the cool machine again, resuming her sobbing.

-

Fareeha felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning away from the roulette wheel, she was face to face with a very distressed looking casino worker.

“You wouldn’t happen to be Mrs. Amari?” She was still holding onto the empty glass Angela handed to her, nervous hands twirling the glass around.

Fareeha felt her face flush at the question. She could only nod.

The attendant stopped twirling the glass, letting out a sigh of relief. “Thank god. Your wife is at the slot machines crying. She said something about getting lost. It looks like she’s having a rough time.”

Worried, Fareeha thanked the helpful casino worker and made her way over to the slot machines. The sight before her made her heart clench. Angela was slumped over the machine bawling her eyes out. Her eyes were red and puffy, tear stained cheeks completing the look of misery. “What’s going on, Angela?”

Angela slowly lifted herself off the machine, happiness shining through her watery eyes. “She found you!” She reached out her arms, pulling Fareeha to her. “You’re here. You said you’d always be there for me.”

 _She’s talking about my vows._ Her heart thumped harder when Angela pulled her down to sit on the same stool, pale arms wrapping around her shoulders. Fareeha felt herself returning the hug. “Always.”

Angela leaned in, tears dripping onto Fareeha’s neck. “T-the machine…”

“What happened?” A soothing hand ran along Angela’s back.

“I lost all my money.” Another sniffle. “Can you win it back for me?”

Fareeha blinked, taking the time to process Angela’s words. _She spent all her money on the slot machines?_ “Maybe we should try another game then?”

A nod. Angela tried to stand up but found herself stumbling back into the stool.

“Here, let me help.” Fareeha wrapped an arm around Angela, supporting her enough so that the blonde was able to stand. They barely took two steps before Angela was slipping out of Fareeha’s grip. _Okay, maybe a different plan._ She had Angela sit down again. Bending over, Fareeha brought her arms behind Angela’s shoulders and knees and picked her up bridal style.

Angela giggled. She softly kicked her legs excitedly, careful not to hit Fareeha.

“So, where to first?”

Blue eyes scanned the casino, zoning in on one of the poker tables. “Over there.”

Soon they found themselves sitting at one of the poker tables. It was the basic five card draw. It wasn’t too much money to play and everyone there looked fresh faced and just as new to the game. Angela was sitting in Fareeha’s lap, an arm looped around her shoulder to keep her balanced.

The blonde gave everyone the stink eye. Each individual face at the table got an eyeful of her sudden displeasure towards them. Angela hugged Fareeha tighter to herself. “No funny business.” She whipped out her left hand, flashing the gold wedding band in their faces. “She married _me.”_

Fareeha sat there looking at her cards with steam coming out of her ears. She didn’t say anything, just continued to analyze her cards. A sudden kiss to her cheek brought her out of her thoughts. A quick glance around the table and she found that everyone took to staring at their cards as well.

When Fareeha went to discard two of her cards, Angela suddenly reached out and pulled them back. “No, no, no. Not those.”

“Why not?”

“Because I _like_ those cards.”

And this is where Fareeha was at an impasse. Should she get rid of those cards and keep the others? Or should she just focus on keeping Angela happy? One look at those sparkling blue eyes had her discarding the rest of her hand, keeping the random five and two.

And they won.

The two of them were unstoppable. Apparently, Angela became a poker goddess when she was drunk. It got to the point where they were asked to play somewhere else. Everyone at the table was tired of losing.

On the way to finding another game to play, Angela waved a hand to Ana who had a mountain of chips next to her at one of the blackjack tables. The older woman waved back, winking at the red faced Angela as she was carried away to the other side of the casino.

They had settled on a different poker table. Fareeha purposefully avoided the one McCree was sitting at, she didn’t want to risk losing any money to him. As Angela essentially played the game for her, Fareeha could see Reinhardt from where she sat. He was laughing up a storm at the only bingo table in the casino. _How long has he been there? That was the first game he went to play._ From across the bingo table, she saw Gabriel glaring at the old man from where he sat playing baccarat. There were quite a few empty shot glasses interspersed with his small pile of chips.

“Fareeha.”

Fareeha brought her attention back to Angela. “Hmm?”

“Jesse is trying to get your attention.”

Sure enough, the formal cowboy could be seen pointing at his gold watch, indicating that it was midnight. He gestured to his giant pile of chips, a smirk forming on his smug face. Fareeha quickly looked back to her pile of chips. She split it in half because Angela was the one playing for her anyway. “Are you okay to walk now?”

Angela made a humming noise. She slowly climbed off of Fareeha’s lap, testing her balance as she stood up. “Yeah, yeah. I can walk.” She took a small step, fumbling all the while. “Well, maybe.”

Gathering up all the chips, Fareeha was quick to be at Angela’s side, letting the blonde cling to her for support. As they walked towards the cashier window, Angela suddenly stopped.

“I’m cold.”

Fareeha didn’t even have to stop and think about what Angela said. She was already taking off her suit jacket, draping it over Angela’s shoulders. Angela gave her a grateful smile and snuggled into Fareeha’s side. Fareeha wrapped an arm around Angela and they continued on their way to the cashier.

When all was said and done, they both ended up with around $1200. Jesse sauntered over with his wad of cash in hand. He waved it in Fareeha’s face for a moment before counting it out loud for everyone in a 5 meter radius to hear.

“And would you look at that, I’ve got $2100.” He cupped his hand around an ear. “And what have you got there?”

Fareeha mumbled out the amount.

“What was that? Couldn’t hear you.”

“$1200.”

“Well then, looks like we’re going drinking tomorrow. Does ten sound good?”

“…yes.”

Jesse tipped his hat twirling around to head towards a different poker table. “See you tomorrow, Amari!”

Fareeha sighed.

“What was that about?” asked Angela.

“Jesse made a bet with me. If he made more money, I’d have to go drinking with him.”

Angela stayed quiet. The cogs in her intoxicated mind turned fast. She wasn’t liking the conclusions her brain was making. So, she said as much. “I don’t like it.”

“What’s wrong?”

“He just wants to make a move on you.” Angela tugged the jacket tighter to her body.

 _Is she…jealous? Of Jesse no less?_ “Angela, nothing like that is going to happen. We’re just friends.”

Blue eyes looked up at Fareeha; the light in the casino made them sparkle. “…really?”

“Yes, really. I promise.”

This seemed to satisfy Angela as she went back to snuggling into Fareeha’s side. “…if he makes a move, you have to tell me so I can smack him.”

“I’ll be sure to tell you if that happens.”

-

On the way out of the casino, Angela managed to snag another margarita when Fareeha wasn’t looking. She downed the whole thing in a couple of gulps, saying, “These are too damn good,” while she drank it.

It ended up being that Fareeha had to escort Angela to her room. The blonde was humming a song to herself the whole time. As soon as the door to Angela’s room was opened, Angela chucked off her heels, giggling when Fareeha tried her best to steer them towards the bed.

A sigh of relief. Fareeha stood at the edge of Angela’s bed, watching as the blonde stared up at her with a huge smile. It was so contagious she couldn’t help but smile back.

“I had fun tonight Fareeha.” She paused. A small crease formed between her brows. “Well, _after_ the slot machine thing.”

“Me too.” A quick look around the room and brown eyes landed on the mini fridge. Fareeha left Angela’s bedside and crossed the room to pull out a water bottle from the fridge. “Do you need anything while I’m over here?”

“…my clothes. They’re in the third drawer.”

Fareeha tucked the water bottle under an arm. She walked over to Angela’s dresser, opening the third drawer. _Looks like she just crammed it all in here._ Fareeha just pulled out a random pair of clothes, folding them neatly in her hands. She made it back to Angela again, smiling when she saw that the sleepy woman could barely keep her eyes open.

“Here.” She gently handed Angela the clothes, putting the water bottle on the night stand next to the bed.

Angela held the clothes between her hands. She wanted to give Fareeha her jacket back but she was too tired to move. “Your jacket.”

“It’s okay. You can get it back to me tomorrow.”

“…alright.”

-

Fareeha ran into her mother on the way out of the room.

“Have fun, Fareeha?”

“It was a good night. Angela’s actually really good at cards.”

A smirk. “I saw.”

Fareeha suddenly became nervous at the implication of the smirk. “Well, Angela went to bed already. And I’m going to go sleep soon as well.” She started to walk towards her room. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Fareeha.”

When she opened the door to her room, Ana leaned in the doorway, smiling at the sight of Angela. The sleeping woman was still in her dress, one hand clutching onto some clothes. A blanket had been pulled over her. Ana could see that she was still wearing Fareeha’s jacket.

“What am I going to do with you two?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no Fareeha, maybe you shouldn't go drinking with Jesse. 
> 
> P.S. For anyone that reads BaC, I know I said an update was coming soon. I am working on it. Like I'm at 6k words but still not done.


	4. The Things People Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Distractions and practice. So much happens in the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't expect this chapter to be this long, but enjoy :)

As it started every morning, the sun shone in Angela’s face, the beams of light making it harder and harder to stay asleep. She had a throbbing headache and her mouth felt dry. _I need water. And painkillers._ Angela slowly opened an eye, examining the room, her gaze settling on the bottle of water on the nightstand. _Fareeha must have left that._ The sun was still an annoyance so Angela rested an arm around her eyes while a clumsy hand reached out and searched the front pocket of the still half-packed carry-on bag beside her bed. She sighed in relief when slow fingers curled around her bottle of aspirin.

Eyes still closed, Angela opened the bottle of aspirin and popped a couple in her mouth. The bottle was chucked half-heartedly back into the sprawled-out bag on the floor. Reaching out again, she grabbed the bottle of water, opening it to take a desperate gulp of water. Angela downed half the bottle before she slowed down, taking smaller sips until the bottle was empty. A soft thud sounded on the floor as the bottle missed the night stand. _I’ll pick it up later._

It was quiet, save for the sound of her breathing. Angela was content to just lie there and wait for the headache to go down. If the margaritas weren’t so damn good, she’d be willing to admit to herself that she may have gone a little overboard. As much as it sucked to wake up feeling awful, it was all worth it and highly justified.

Angela was about to doze off when the door to the room was opened. She smelled coffee and heard something being placed on her nightstand. Next thing she knew, Ana was trying to coax her into a sitting position.

“Alright, it’s time to get up.” Ana was at Angela’s side gently shaking her shoulder. She smiled when a pale arm slid off the blonde’s face, revealing scrunched up eyebrows and a small frown. Ana just shook her head and continued on. “Let’s go, up.”

“Okay, okay.” Angela ran a hand through her mess of hair. “Just not so loud.” She slowly opened her eyes, blinking a couple of times before pushing the blanket down and sitting up. “I’m up.” Her wedding mug was thrust into one hand, a bowl of oatmeal in the other. She watched through bleary eyes as Ana placed a banana in her lap.

“First, eat.” Ana gestured to Angela’s form. “You look like you just died.”

Angela nodded, taking a sip of coffee from her now favorite mug. _I feel like I did too._

“Then we’re going to go over the details of the game plan.”

Angela put the mug on the nightstand. She picked out the plastic spoon that was jammed into her oatmeal and shoved a spoonful of the stuff in her mouth. _She put blueberries in here._ “Game plan?”

Ana nodded. “Yes. We’re going to go over step by step on how you’re going to woo my daughter.”

All the sleep left her body. Angela sat up straight, the plastic spoon forgotten in the oatmeal as her thoughts went into overdrive. She could feel her face heating up and the vibrations of her heart pounding against her chest. _I should have seen this coming._ “O-oh.”

“I’m 98% sure that Fareeha is interested in you, so all this should end well.”

Angela picked up her spoon again, stuffing her mouth with oatmeal once more. “Why not 100%?”

“Well,” Ana crossed her arms, trying to find the right way to put it, “I know my daughter very well. But sometimes I get a little unsure about things on the count of how nice she is. But like I said before, I’m 98% sure she likes you. That may as well be 100%. I have my way about knowing these things.”

The plastic spoon scraped the edges of the styrofoam bowl. Angela took the last bite of oatmeal, reaching for the banana in her lap when she finished chewing. She just nodded along, pealing the banana in front of the determined older woman.

“Fareeha deserves to be wooed. Since it’s been a year of you tip-toeing around her, it’s time for you to step up and actually do something about it.” She watched as blue eyes quickly looked away, choosing instead to stare at the blanket. “Ah, ah. No sulking.” Ana smirked when Angela hurriedly focused back on Ana. “The first thing you have to do is ask her out on a date. You can’t leave any room for her thinking that it’s between friends. Say something like, ‘Hey Fareeha, I’m really, really, really attracted to you. Will you go on a date with me?'”

Angela somehow managed to finish her bite of banana, avoiding death by choking on fruit as a coughing fit took over. Her eyes stared wide at Ana while she tried to control her coughing.

“So, after she says yes, you have to take her to a fun place. Dinner is nice, and maybe you can take her somewhere to eat afterwards, but this date has to have substance.”

After some effort, Angela finally finished the banana. The empty peel was placed in the discarded bowl, both of her hands now holding onto her cup of coffee. She took a sip and cleared her throat. “So, is that all…?” Her mind was going into overdrive trying to think of places to take Fareeha.

“Well, ideally, the date would end in you two declaring your undying love for each other.” Ana smirked at the sound of Angela struggling to keep the sip of coffee down her throat. “But I think it’s more realistic to say that part two of the plan involves you doing part one again until the ideal result is achieved. Or…” Ana trailed off, shaking her head at the next thought.

“Or?” Angela wiped at her mouth, brushing away the little droplets of coffee that managed to escape her lips.

Ana hesitated for a brief moment. “Or Fareeha decides she’d rather have you as a friend.” She waved her hands in front of the suddenly panicked blonde. “But that won’t happen! She definitely likes you.”

Angela finished drinking her coffee in silence. That last outcome weighed heavily on her mind. She barely even noticed when Ana sat on the bed next to her.

“Don’t think so hard on it. It’ll just make things complicated.” A concerned look covered the older woman’s face when she saw that Angela chose to remain quiet, pale hands gripping onto an empty mug. “Hey.” A reassuring touch. “She’s not even mad about what happened.”

Angela slowly focused her gaze on Ana at the words. Her interest was piqued enough to snap away from those thoughts. “Really?” _I never even asked her how she felt._

“Yes really. The odds are already in your favor just from that alone.” A soft smile when Angela seemed to perk up. She gave the other woman a hearty pat on the back and got up from the bed. “Alright, now that you’ve quit your moping, it’s time to get to business.”

“There’s more?” Blue eyes widened in disbelief.

“Yes, there’s more.” Ana crossed her arms, giving Angela a pointed look.

“I can’t even imagine what ‘more’ could be.”

“Well, can you honestly tell me you’re ready to walk down that hallway and ask her out?”

_Oh._

A smug smirk appeared when Ana saw the look of realization pass over Angela. “I’ve got Gabriel to keep Fareeha busy for the day. And from what I’ve heard, she is going to be busy tonight too. So that leaves all day for us to get this right.”

The wedding mug was gently placed back on the nightstand. Headache gone and surprisingly invigorated, Angela finally took in the state of her person. Her hair was lopped to one side, golden tresses threatening to spill from their constraints. She was still wearing last night’s dress, the material twisted so much that her right bra cup was on full display. To top it all off, Fareeha’s suit jacket was still hanging off her left side. The material was terribly wrinkled. Her heart pounded in panic. _I’m a mess. Ana was being too kind not to say anything about it._ Both hands went to cover her face. _Never mind, she said I looked like I just died._ A sigh. _This is what she meant by it._

“Okay.” Angela lowered her hands. “Just…I need to brush my teeth. And take a shower.”

-

Fareeha was awoken by the sound of knocking on the door. She turned to her other side, opening her eyes to see that Hana was still sound asleep. The knocking continued.

 _Alright, alright._ Fareeha tossed the covers off and sleepily stumbled out of bed. She scratched at an itchy spot on her arm, yawning on the way to the door. Brown eyes could only blink and stare as they took in the sight of a nervous looking Gabriel standing on the other side of the door.

“I know it’s early…” Gabriel sighed. He needed to go through with this if he wanted that damn letter from Ana. “But, Ana told me you were a fan of cheesecake?”

 _Was that a question?_ Fareeha stayed quiet, nodding her head in affirmation. She was still confused.

Gabriel reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He hastily unfolded it showing the list he made last night to Fareeha. It had ten cheesecake places on it. “Would you mind going with me?” He gave her a pained smile, hoping to whatever god out there that she would agree.

Fareeha gave the paper a once over. “You want me to go with you on a…cheesecake expedition? There’s ten places on that paper. That’s a lot of cheesecake.”

He struggled not to just crumple the paper in his hand and toss it down the hallway. Taking a calming breath, Gabriel quickly developed a solution. “Yeah, it’s a lot. But we can share a piece. I just really…love cheesecake.”

 _Maybe he doesn’t want to go alone? And if we share, that would cut down on the amount of cheesecake._ Fareeha looked down at the slippers she hastily put on in contemplation. She didn’t really have a reason not to go with him. As long as they came back before she had to go out with Jesse. “Just give me an hour and we can go.” Fareeha looked back up in time to see Gabriel give a sigh of relief.

“Thank you. This means a lot.” It meant a lot for Gabriel’s career. “Take your time getting ready. I’ll be in my room when you’re done.”

And take her time she did. Fareeha may or may not have gotten back into bed for another hour of sleep. She woke up feeling more refreshed and took another half hour getting ready. When Fareeha made it to Gabriel’s room, she was dressed in a tank top and shorts. She had on a comfortable pair of sneakers and sunglasses. Her hair was tied too. She had a feeling they’d be waiting in a lot of lines.

Two knocks were all it took for Gabriel to open the door. He smiled at her, hastily leaving the room and shutting the door behind him. He took out the paper on their way to the elevator and pointed to the first location.

“This first one is actually right across from the hotel.” He pressed the elevator down button without looking. “It’s a little café.”

“That’s the one with the long, wrap around line.”

“Well, yeah.” The elevator stopped at the lobby, the two of them stepping out. “That’s how you know it’s good.” Gabriel discretely looked for Fareeha’s reaction. He let out a small sigh of relief when Fareeha seemed to nod along in agreement. He needed his plan to work.

_“Hey, Gabriel. Come here a second.”_

_Gabriel was on his way to cash out his chips when Ana called to him from the Blackjack table. “You need something?”_

_“Can you do me a favor tomorrow?”_

_Gabriel narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Ana was never to ask for anything lightly. “What kind of favor?”_

_“Oh, nothing much.” She chuckled when the man two seats from her lost his $500 bet. “How would you feel about spending the day with Fareeha tomorrow.”_

_He was confused. “Didn’t she get married the other day? Why doesn’t she just spend the day with Angela?”_

_Ana sighed. She turned around in her seat to look at Gabriel. “Angela and I will be busy tomorrow. We’ll be working on a surprise for Fareeha. I need you to keep her busy.”_

_He still didn’t understand why it had to be him. “There’s plenty of others to keep her busy.”_

_“You know that letter you’ve been waiting for me to write for about…” She tapped her chin in a show of mock contemplation. “A year and a half?”_

_Gabriel almost dropped his chips right then and there. “Are you saying…”_

_“I’ll write it, and then you won’t have to be Reinhardt’s assistant anymore.”_

_It was a no brainer. Blackmail or not, it was worth it. “What am I even supposed to do with her?”_

_Ana swiveled back to facing the table. She waved a hand behind her. “You’re supposed to figure that out. Take her to the movies, or some museums.”_

_He didn’t want to do that._

_“Or maybe go eat. She likes cheesecake. Just find something to do.”_

_He did like to eat. And he liked cheesecake too. “Okay, I’ll do it.”_

_“That’s what I like to hear Gabriel. Overwatch appreciates a can do attitude. I’ll be sure to add that in the letter.”_

-

Hana woke up to an empty room again. She rolled over and yanked her phone off her nightstand. _Eleven. Too late for breakfast._ She threw the covers off, getting off the bed and making a beeline for the bathroom. Twenty minutes later, Hana found herself rummaging through the mini-fridge. Her arms were full of cake and yogurt. _Thanks Overwatch for buying breakfast._

She sat on one of the couches, plastic spoon in hand, going to town on the sweets she picked out. Her eyes were fixated on the balcony. Next thing Hana knew, she was getting up and opening the sliding door to look outside. And that’s where she got inspired. “That pool looks awesome.”

The only problem was finding someone to go with her. Sure, she could just go herself, but it was always more fun to go with people she knew.

So, Hana changed into her swimsuit. She put on a pair of sunglasses and rubbed in her sunscreen real good. A glob was generously added to her nose afterwards. Slipping on a pair of flip flops, she was out the door in record time.

A knock on Ana and Angela’s room and she was quickly shot down. They were apparently doing something important. Hana was left blinking in front of a closed door a moment later. _Okay. There’s still more people._

Reinhardt had left a note on his door saying that he went sightseeing. _Well, at least I didn’t have to knock to get disappointed. Guess that leaves Gabe and Jesse._ To her surprise Jesse was very receptive to the idea. She only had to wait five minutes before he was back at the door in his swim trunks and, not surprising, a cowboy hat.

“Alright, let’s get going.” Jesse closed the door behind him and followed Hana to the elevator.

“So, did you eat breakfast?” Hana attempted small talk in the elevator. She never did talk much to Jesse.

“I just grabbed something from the fridge. Didn’t feel like waking up early or nothin’.”

And that’s when she knew they were going to get along fine. “I did the same thing cowboy.”

“Well now I know who the smart one is.”

“Smart or just lazy?”

Jesse rubbed his chin in contemplation. “I reckon it’s a little bit of both.”

The elevator dinged and they walked out together to the pool. Well, it was more like a small waterpark. The infinity pool hugged the edge, waterslides, fountains, hot tubs, and smaller pools filling up the rest of the space.

An employee greeted them with a big smile and warm towels. He pointed to where the restrooms were and where you could get pool floats. He made sure to highlight the bar, immediately getting Jesse’s attention.

“Would you look at this place. I think the others are missing out.”

“I might have to drag Fareeha here later.”

Jesse laughed. “Well, I hope not tonight. We made a bet. She lost. So now we’re gonna go drinking tonight.”

They set their towels on a pair of unoccupied lounge chairs.

“And while you’re at it, might have to drag Angela here to.”

This got Hana’s attention. _Did Ziegs really make a move?_ “And why’s that?”

“Word is the two of them got married.”

Hana nearly doubled over in laughter. “I was there when they got ‘married.’ It wasn’t real. Those people even dragged robot Elvis to play music for the reception.”

Jesse took off his hat and threw it in his chair. “Well, Gabe was the one who told me about it. Never mentioned anything about no fake wedding.”

Hana scrunched her eyebrows at the reply. “What exactly did he say?”

“He said he saw a ring on her finger and asked about it. She freaked out a little bit but eventually said that they did get married.”

 _I knew it looked a little too real._ “I was there and didn’t even put two and two together.” She slumped into her lounge chair in astonishment.

“Don’t worry about it darlin’. I’m sure there’s an explanation somewhere. Right now, we should just focus on having fun.”

Brown eyes looked up to Jesse’s prosthetic arm. “Can you get your arm wet?”

Jesse seemed a little caught off guard. He just smiled and proceeded to take of the prosthetic. “Sure thing.” He held the arm in his hand, walking closer to the infinity pool that was full of people. “Watch.” In the next second, he threw the arm into the pool, a smug smirk appearing on his face at the splash.

Not even ten seconds passed before people were screaming and scrambling to get out of the pool at the sight of the mysterious severed arm that just landed in the pool.

“Ah, that’s never not funny.” Jesse looked on in mirth, watching as the last person climbed out. His arm had floated to the middle of the pool, it seemed lonely.

 _How did we not hang out before?_ Hana was looking up at the man in a new light. _The man’s a genius. And that was hilarious._ “That…was awesome.”

Before Jesse could respond, an employee had approached him. “Sir, is that yours?” Two fingers gestured towards the floating arm.

“Aw shucks, that’s where it went. Must have slipped out of my hand when I took it off.”

The employee narrowed his eyes with suspicion. He looked at Jesse for a couple of seconds before sighing. “Please keep a better eye on the arm sir.”

Jesse gave the man a mock salute. “Will do. I’ll go get it right now.”

The employee gave a wry smile before leaving them be.

“So, wanna go swimming?”

Hana took her flips flops off, tossing it to the chair along with her sunglasses. “Yeah, I’m just going to grab a pool float first.”

-

They were at the fourth cheesecake place on the list. Fareeha had to admit, she was having a good time. All the cheesecake they had was insanely delicious. And Gabriel was surprisingly good company. He’d talk about the embarrassing stuff he’d get into when he was younger. A lot of them surprisingly happened in Las Vegas. Apparently, he’d drive up here with a group of friends looking for trouble. It was a competition to see who’d get caught last.

“So, Jack was able to stuff two bottles of wine in his pockets and walk out of there.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Are you talking about _Morrison_?”

Gabriel took the last bite of his half of the cheesecake slice. It was plain cheesecake with a drizzle of salted chocolate. “Yeah, we met in business school.”

“So, you and old man Morrison both ended up working for Overwatch?”

He smiled at the nickname for Jack. “He got the job at Overwatch first. Recommended me a couple months later.”

“I remember the billboards with his face on them, back in the day. Was that something you wanted to do too?” The curiosity got the better of her.

Gabriel rolled his eyes at the memory of those cheesy advertisements. “They wanted a blonde wonder boy for the ads.” He crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair. “If I would have done them, you’d see this scowling mug.” Gabriel gestured towards his face. “Pretty sure we would have seen a drop in sales.”

“I don’t know.” Fareeha looked on at Gabriel in contemplation. “I’ve seen the old photos. You had a nice smile.” She slid her empty plate away from her. “Maybe you still do. I don’t know. I’ve just seen you scowling the whole time.” Fareeha gave an exaggerated sigh. “Although, I think I did see it yesterday.”

“Hmph.” Gabriel just sat there and kept up the act.

“Keep that up and you’ll end up like old man Morrison. Always telling off the local youth.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

Fareeha leaned forward, flashing him a big smile. “I can see it now. You’ll be saying, ‘I’m not your father.’ and ‘Young punks, get off my lawn.’ any day now.”

He nearly snorted at the absurd lines. “Sorry, that’s not happening.”

A shrug. “We’ll just have to see.”

-

Ana was hugging a box of tissues. She was sitting on one of the couches in front of the mounted TV, her legs tucked beneath herself. They decided to take a break after Ana’s rigorous coaching session. She wanted to see the wedding video. The video just started and she was just so overcome with emotion as soon as she saw Fareeha walking down the aisle.

“Angela look, look how beautiful she is.”

Angela smiled into the pillow she hugged. “I was there Ana.”

“Yeah you were there, but are you looking _now_?”

“I can’t take my eyes off her.”

A tissue blotted away a stray tear. “Good.”

“Look how happy she got when she saw you.”

Angela was looking with renewed vigor. She never got to see from an outside perspective. It was mesmerizing. _She does look happy._ The pillow was constantly being squished from the nervous energy she got by looking at the intense blush on her own face.

The instant Angela started crying in the video, Ana could be heard sniffling on her couch. Multiple tissues were torn from the box in quick succession. Her crying went into overtime when Fareeha started to shed tears as well. She was a ball of tears when the two of them kissed, laughing a little from Hana’s outburst before the kiss. “I can’t believe I couldn’t see this when it happened.”

Angela was up out of her couch in an instant, wrapping her arms around the older woman. “I’m so sorry Ana.” Her tears fell onto Ana’s shirt. “I didn’t think…” Her words caught in her throat as she sucked in a breath of air. “I didn’t think it’d be that intense.”

It ended being that Ana held Angela as she cried into her shirt. Ana would occasionally wipe at her eyes as she watched the dancing portion. A smile on her face at the employees in the back scrambling to push robot Elvis up to the stage.

The crying blonde finally lifted her head in time to see Fareeha and her feeding each other cake. The smears of icing on both of their faces making one of the more humorous photos in the album she held so dear. That’s what it all came down to anyway. All of this happened because she wanted that photo album so badly.

A tissue was offered to Angela. She eagerly took it, wiping away the stray tears and blowing her nose. Ana put some distance between them when she did that.

“That’s one of my favorite pictures. The icing just got everywhere.”

“I liked that one too.”

-

Fareeha was standing with Gabriel in front of the last place on their list. It was 8 P.M. and they were heading to the third Cheesecake Factory of the night.

“You know Gabriel, now that I think about it, we could have just gotten three cheesecakes from the first Cheesecake Factory.”

Gabriel shrugged his shoulders, trying his best to seem nonchalant. Going to three different Cheesecake Factories was better than going to one just for the time wasting effect. The lines were always long. They’d have to wait three times the amount for each cheesecake. He had to intersperse them on the list so Fareeha wouldn’t catch on. His plan worked.

“The cheesecakes might taste different.”

Fareeha almost snorted at the comment. “We’ve been trying different cheesecakes all day. Of course they’d taste different.”

“Want to pick one we had before then?”

“Well, that’d ruin the fun. Wouldn’t it?”

They started walking towards the long line. “See, now you’re thinking like a true cheesecake connoisseur.”

“Learned from the best.”

-

“Have we been here all day?” Hana was floating with Jesse in the infinity pool. It had surprisingly stayed empty thanks to the rumor of a severed arm floating around in the pool. They each had a tropical drink in hand, the both of them looking over the edge of the pool to the buildings below. There were lights shining below the pool, helping to illuminate the darkness.

Jesse put his drink in the cup holder of the pool float. He touched his face to see just how burned it got. Most of it was concentrated on his nose and cheeks. “Yeah, I reckon’ we have.” Just then a thought occurred to him. “Um, what time is it?”

Hana moved around in her float to try and see if the time was displayed. No luck. When she spotted an employee walking around the pool, she waved her down, making sure to get her attention.

The woman brought her attention to Hana and walked as close as she could to the intern. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Yeah, what time is it?”

The woman looked down at her watch. “It’s a quarter to ten.” She shied away from the pool when she heard a splash.

Jesse emerged to the surface holding a now empty glass. He looked a bit guilty for the red drink spilling through the pool. “Ah, sorry about that.” He waded his way to the stairs and handed the woman the empty glass. “Don’t mean to be so rude but I’m nearly late.”

He made a bee line for the lounge chair, quickly putting his hat on and slipping his flip flops on. Jesse didn’t even bother with taking the towel with him. He just said a quick goodbye to Hana and ran towards the building, a stream of, “I’m late, I’m late, I’m late,” following in his wake.

Hana was left with the astonished woman. She continued to drink her drink like nothing happened, only looking at the growing splotch of red worming its way through the pool.

The pool attendant spoke up. “Ma’am, would you mind leaving the pool so we can clean that out? I can already see the guests freaking out about the ‘blood’ in the pool.”

Hana finished her drink. “Yeah, sure.”

-

When they got back to the hotel, Fareeha said her goodbyes to Gabriel and thanked him for the ultimate cheesecake experience. He flashed her a smile, saying that it was his pleasure. In fact, he looked livelier than ever. She watched as he stopped in front of his door, pulling out his phone to quickly type something in. Two seconds later, he was fist pumping the air, opening his door with the biggest smile on his face.

 _I knew he could smile like that again._ She inserted her room key, heading straight for her dresser to get ready for the night. Going on a cheesecake expedition was surprisingly hard work. She needed to take a shower and wash away the day’s fatigue.

Twenty minutes later, she was sitting on her bed, running a towel through her wet hair. She’d periodically check the time every now and then, seeing that is was nearly 10 P.M. When it was ten minutes past when Jesse was supposed to be there, she sat down on one of the couches and turned on the TV. There was some sort of junior Olympics going on.

It was a little passed 10:30 when Fareeha finally heard a knock on her door. She got up and grabbed her room key, heading towards the door. Jesse was on the other side huffing, leaning against the door.

“Didn’t think you were one to be late Jesse.”

He looked up, giving Fareeha the guilty eyes. “I know, I know. I got caught up with Hana at the pool. Had the whole damn thing to ourselves.”

A smirk. “Did you throw your arm in it?”

“I threw my arm in it.”

Fareeha walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her. “Well, let’s continue the fun.”

-

She shouldn’t have been surprised. Everything about the place just screamed ‘Jesse.’ He had taken them to a Western themed bar. Complete with Cowgirl waitresses, a mechanical bull, and the distinctive tune of country music.

“Aw come on, this place is great.” Jesse wrapped his arm around Fareeha and dragged the woman further inside. “Came here all the time when I was younger. Still looks the same.” He took a whiff of the cigar filled air. “Smells the same too.”

“Isn’t that a relief.” Fareeha followed Jesse to a table.

Jesse gestured for Fareeha to sit down. “I’ll be right back with our drink of choice for the night.”

So, she sat down in the surprisingly comfortable relic of a chair and waited for Jesse to get back. Brown eyes examined the walls filled to the brim with old photographs and intricate carvings of bulls and owls. Fareeha sat up straighter when Jesse got back soon afterwards. He placed a bottle of whiskey in the middle of the table, gently putting a glass in front of her.

“We’re drinking the good stuff thanks to our dearest employer. You like whiskey, right?”

Fareeha examined the bottle, reading the label in its entirety. “Guess I’ll find out.”

Jesse grinned, plopping down in his chair with a chuckle. “Now that’s what I like to hear!”

-

They had rehearsed everything Angela was supposed to say for what felt like the fiftieth time that night.

“I think...I think right now, you’re ready.”

Angela brightened at the words. “Really?”

 _You’re still a stuttering mess but I’m sure it’ll work out fine. It’s getting late and I’m tired. It’ll have to do._ “Yes, really.”

“And you’re certain she’ll say yes?” Angela was wringing her hands with nervous glee.

“Yes, yes. I’m positive.”

“But only 98% positive.”

“Well…” Ana held her chin in contemplation. “I think…”

“What?” Her heart beat faster the longer Ana took to reply.

“I think it’s 100% now.”

And those were the words Angela didn’t know she needed to hear. She backed up into her bed, stunned and all too happy. “100%.” Ana was never wrong when she fully believed in something.

“Yes, 100%. You watched the same video I did. You were even there. She said she loved you. Had those sparkle eyes when she said it.”

Angela could feel her ears heating up. “Like.. _love_ love?”

“You don’t tell a friend you love them with gushy, sparkly eyes Angela.”

She fell backwards onto the bed, a hand clutching at her chest. Any moment now, her soul was going to float out of her body and ascend to another realm. She was so happy. “I’m glad we watched the video Ana.” Angela didn’t even feel the vibrations of her own voice. “You just made my day.”

-

Jesse watched as Fareeha nodded her head to the beat of the country song, a big smile plastered on her face. They were laughing and telling jokes by now, a pleasant buzz shared between them. Well, Jesse was more sober than Fareeha.

“So Fareeha…” Now was a good of time as any to ask. “I heard that you and Angela got hitched the other day.”

Fareeha nodded in affirmation, taking another sip of her drink. “We did.” A soft giggle escaped her lips. “We did. We got _married._ ”

“But just to be clear, Hana told me that you guys signed up for some sort of wedding experience?”

Fareeha put her glass down, looking Jesse dead in the eye. “I thought we did. But it was as real as real gets. Really real.” She looked at her left hand and fiddled with the golden ring. “So, we’re married now.”

If she wasn’t clear before, she was being very clear now. There was not a doubt in Jesse’s mind that they actually were married. “So, you guys planning on staying married?”

Fareeha shrugged, picking up her glass again. “I told her she could take her time. All the time. As much as she needed.” She nodded at her own words.

“Well, that’s mighty considerate of you. But, how do you feel about all this?” Another question popped in his mind before she could answer. “Do you even love her?”

Fareeha quickly put the glass on the table, little drops of whiskey escaping onto the table. “Of course I do! Angela is _wonderful_. She’s always too kind to me. And she always tries to get me to laugh in the office. Sometimes she’s a little clumsy but I think it’s cute. She’s so cute. And she’s always giving me kisses here,” she pointed to her cheek, “that tingle. But I want them to be here,” a tan finger pointed to her lips, “like at the wedding. That feeling lasted forever Jesse. _Forever._ ”

 _Looks like the whiskey is talking for her._ He casually continued to sip his drink, content to let Fareeha finish.

“Angela is just something else. I’ve never felt the way I do with others I’ve dated before. My heart beats so fast around her.” She tapped her chest to demonstrate the feeling. “And I felt that tingling a hundred-fold when I kissed her. Here,” a hand to her chest, “and here,” another to her stomach. “I love her Jesse.”

“You tell all that to her?”

Fareeha furiously shook her head. “I need to.”

“Well, if you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask me. I’d love to see the both of you happy together.”

She looked like she was about to cry. “You’re such a good friend Jesse. I’m glad Angela doesn’t have to smack you.”

He sat up straighter, curious about this new bit of information. “Come again?”

“At the casino, she told me to tell her if you tried to make a move on me while we were out drinking. She was going to smack you if you did.”

“Well, now that I know about your undying love for Ziegler, you won’t get any trouble from me.” He gave Fareeha a wink, smiling when the woman seemed happy with his response.

-

Angela was still in bed, staring up at the ceiling. Ana had long since changed into her night clothes and went to bed. The blonde couldn’t sleep though, she was too excited about tomorrow.

 _Tomorrow. Tomorrow. That’s when I ask her out. And she’ll say yes, because all the signs point to yes._ She nodded to herself in the dark. _Yes, she’ll say yes._

Slowly, she slid off the bed, standing up when her feet touched the floor. After rummaging through her dresser for a bit, she pulled out a nightgown, heading into the bathroom to get ready for the night. When she came out, she managed to stumble to her bed in the pitch blackness, getting under the covers and trying her best to sleep. It didn’t happen. At least she was ready for whenever her body decided it was tired enough.

-

Jesse and Fareeha had just left the bar, the two of them holding onto each other for support. They tried their best not to make too much of a ruckus.

During their walk down the sidewalk, Jesse suddenly stopped in front of a shop with bright neon lights. He wouldn’t budge.

“What’s the holdup.”

“Now just a moment.” His eyes sparkled with the light of the sign that read, ’24-Hour Tatttoo.’ “Want to go in?”

Even in her drunk state, Fareeha knew that was a bad idea. “A tattoo? We can barely walk straight.”

Jesse suddenly whipped his head around, giving Fareeha the most serious look he could muster. “What, you chicken?”

There was something about the phrase that got her blood pumping. She knew he was trying to egg her on. But it was working. No, Fareeha Amari wasn’t a chicken. “No!”

“Then one itty bitty tattoo won’t hurt.” He smirked. “You can even get it where no one can see it.”

“My tattoo is going to be awesome and everyone will be able to see it.”

“Well,” he gestured to the door, “after you.”

The tattoo shop was very clean and sterile looking. The walls were mainly white. They were littered with examples and past works.

“Woah.” Jesse was in awe. “This place is nice.”

The only night artist on duty lifted his head from his phone to see two people walk in. “Welcome to the 24 Hour. Are you two looking to get inked?”

Jesse dragged the two of them to the front counter. “Damn straight we are.”

The tattoo artist could smell the alcohol on the man’s breath. By all means, he should have sent them on their way. But that’s if he cared enough to do so. Tonight, he felt like getting paid.

“Alright, follow me to the back.”

-

Angela was nearly asleep. Any moment now, and she’d be on her way to having pleasant dreams. That was until the door was suddenly set alight with the pounding of what seemed like two people knocking. She rolled over and checked the time. 2 A.M. Closing her eyes, Angela hoped that if she didn’t say anything, the two probably drunk people would leave. Blue eyes snapped open after she realized what that could mean.

The blankets flew off her body. Angela was quick to run to the door, turning on the lights when she saw Jesse and Fareeha through the peephole. Her hands quickly unlocked the door. In the next moment, a crying Fareeha was pushed into her arms.

“It hurts Angela, it hurts.”

Angela ran a soothing hand along Fareeha’s back. Narrowed eyes looked at a guilty looking Jesse. “What. Happened.” It wasn’t even a question. Jesse needed to answer if he knew what was good for him.

“W-we got drunk…” He took to tugging at his shirt collar. “And we might have gotten…” Jesse wasn’t sure if Angela would kill him or not if he finished his sentence.

A moment later, Ana came pushing past, a hand reaching up to pull on Jesse’s ear. “Talk.”

Jesse gulped. He quickly went to stammer out the rest of what happened. “We got tattoos.”

“You took my drunk daughter to get a tattoo?” Ana pulled down hard on Jesse’s ear. “And don’t even try to talk your way out of it. I know you were the one that convinced her.”

“Yes, yes, yes. I’m sorry. I goaded her into it.”

Ana didn’t let up on his ear. “Let’s go.” She started dragging him down the hall to his room. “The key.” She held out her hand and like magic, the room key suddenly appeared in her hand. Unlocking the door, Ana dragged the poor soul to his bed, turning on the lights on the way there. Gabriel woke up with a start. He was smart enough to keep quiet.

Jesse was thrown on the bed. He cowered in fear at the anger pouring through Ana.

“Let’s see it.”

Jesse wasted no time in lifting his shirt. He tugged down his pants a little, down past where the button to his jeans rested. Carefully, he lifted the bandage, slowly revealing his new tattoo. The look of disbelief on Ana’s face said all he needed to know.

“Jesse, what did you do?” Ana looked on in horror at the belt buckle tattoo he got. It spelled out BAMF and took up a lot of space. “Please tell me that Fareeha didn’t get a tattoo as ridiculous as this.”

“Well, I thought it looked nice.”

“Where did she get it?”

Jesse gulped. She probably wouldn’t like the answer. “…her face.” It was like he’d never seen her angry before. Every time before this paled in comparison. Jesse feared for his life.

“Her. Face.”

“Y-yeah, but please hear me out. It’s actually really good. I think you’d even like it!” As far as he knew, Ana was kind enough not to kill him right then and there. Daring a look to the other occupant of the room, Jesse quickly focused his gaze back to Ana when Gabriel furiously shook his head no at him.

“What does it look like?”

“Oh um, well…”

_Jesse was sitting down watching as the tattoo artist talked to Fareeha. His new tattoo didn’t hurt too bad._

_“So, what are you looking for?”_

_Fareeha took a while to think. “I want it to be very visible. I want everyone to see it.”_

_“Alright, I can do that. Where do you want it?”_

_She pointed to her face, right below her right eye. “Here.”_

_The tattoo artist raised his eyebrows. “You sure about that? It’s gonna hurt real bad.”_

_“Yeah, I’m sure.”_

_“Okay, so what are we thinking about putting beneath the eye?”_

_Fareeha tugged on her necklace. “Like my necklace.”_

_The man examined the necklace, taking in the overall design. “Did you want the whole eye outlined?”_

_“No, no. Just the swooshes.” She traced the patterns below her eye. “Swoosh here, and a smaller swoosh there.”_

_“Alright two swooshes coming up.”_

“Swooshes?”

“Yeah, like her necklace.” He backed up further onto his bed when Ana seemed to calm down a little.

“So, it’s not gaudy like yours.”

Jesse winced at the words. _I wouldn’t call it that._ “No ma’am. Promise.”

“Here’s what’s going to happen Jesse. If she wakes up tomorrow hating everything about that tattoo, you’re gonna wish that I was nice enough to give you the deal Gabriel got.”

Jesse widened his eyes in fear. As far as he knew, Gabriel used to have his own team. And now he was working under Reinhardt. He shuddered at what Ana had in mind for him.

“I promise you ma’am, she’ll love it.” _Oh god, please like the damn tattoo Fareeha. Please._

“For your sake, she better.”

-

“It hurts.”

Angela and Fareeha were sitting on the bed. The younger woman had yet to let go of Angela. She had the left side of her face buried in Angela’s shoulder, crying her eyes out.

“I know, I know.” When Fareeha seemed to be crying a little less intensely, Angela decided to see what the damage was. “Do you think you can show me the tattoo?” She felt a nod on her shoulder.

Slowly, Fareeha lifted her head from Angela’s shoulder. The bandage under her eye was clear as day. Angela wondered how she didn’t notice before.

Careful fingers pulled the bandage away revealing the tattoo beneath it.

Angela gasped. “Fareeha…”

“How does it look?”

It was still red, and there were spots of blood. But it was beautiful. “Fareeha, it looks so beautiful.”

“Really?” A sniffle. “You’re not just saying that?”

“No, no, no. I mean it. It suits you.”

Fareeha accidentally brushed against it when she went to wipe away a stray tear. “It burns. The damn thing hurts so much.”

Angela held cupped Fareeha’s left cheek. “I know, I know.” She smiled when Fareeha leaned into her hand. “Did the tattoo artist leave you with any sort of instructions?”

“Yeah.” Fareeha reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper the man scribbled on. She gave it to Angela.

She read the surprisingly detailed care instructions. “Okay, let’s get it cleaned up alright? It’ll hurt, but I’ll be gentle.” Angela was relieved when Fareeha didn’t put up a fuss. She walked them to the bathroom no problem, leading them to the sink with little effort.

“So, it says to wash it with warm water and liquid soap.” The sink was turned on, a pale hand every now and then checking the temperature. When it was warm, she got Fareeha to bend towards the sink. “This might hurt but please bear with me.” When Fareeha nodded, Angela gently poured some of the water over the tattoo. Then she lathered up some soap in her hand and delicately started cleaning the area.

Fareeha would grit her teeth, a whimper escaping her lips every now and then. She never pulled her face away though. She concentrated so hard on bearing through the pain, letting Angela wash off the blood and medication.

When Angela was done. She went to the towel rack and pulled out a clean hand towel, blotting the area dry, careful not to put much pressure.

“Do you want to stay with me tonight?”

Fareeha didn’t hesitate at the question. “Yes.”

“Okay, I’ll see if Ana will switch rooms tonight.”

“No, I want to stay with _you._ She can keep her bed.”

Angela felt the blush dusting over her cheeks. “Of course. It’s not a problem.” The blush intensified when Fareeha smiled in happiness at her response. “Just stay right here, I’ll get you some clothes.”

Angela froze in the middle of trying to get Fareeha clothes. Ana was standing in the doorway to the room, a huge grin on her face.

“S-she wants to stay here tonight.”

“I heard.”

“Oh, well, you don’t have to worry about switching rooms.”

“Hmm, well, I think I’ll room with Hana tonight anyway. Something tells me you’d have a better morning this way. If you wouldn’t mind, could you get the key for me?”

Angela nodded furiously. She quickly grabbed some clothes from her dresser, running back into the bathroom to hand Fareeha her clothes. “Could I get your room key?” Fareeha didn’t even ask why. She just handed Angela the key. “Thank you, Fareeha. Those should fit you.” She pointed under the sink. “There’s extra tooth brushes there…please feel free to use one.” _As much as I like you, I don’t want to be sleeping next to someone with whiskey breath._

When she closed the door behind her, Angela could hear Fareeha rummaging beneath the sink. “Here.” She handed Ana the key. “T-thank you.”

“Ah, ah. Don’t thank me yet. You still have a morning to look forward to. You know, the one where you ask her out.”

“Yeah, there’s still that to look forward too.” A dreamy smile appeared on her lips.

“Goodnight Angela, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight Ana.”

She watched the older woman shut the door behind her. Now it was just her and Fareeha. And speaking of Fareeha, as soon as Ana left, a sound of pain echoed from behind the bathroom door. In a panic, Angela busted through the door. The sight before her was something else.

Fareeha was stuck. The shirt was stuck on her arms, the material rubbing against her tattoo. She was crying out in pain.

Angela was at her side in a split second. She carefully lifted the shirt, making sure not to rub the material against the tattoo.

“Thank you.” Fareeha restrained a hand from wiping the tears under her right eye. “Can you help me put on the other shirt?”

“Yes, of course I wi…” Angela’s brain short circuited. Fareeha had reached up behind her and unclasped her bra in a fraction of a second. She didn’t imagine seeing them so soon. She could only watch as Fareeha put her arms through the sleeves of the t-shirt and waited for Angela to help her.

“Angela?”

 _Snap out of it. It’s totally not cool to ogle. She’s drunk._ Refocused, Angela held the collar of the shirt open, making sure it didn’t touch the tattoo. “Come on you, let’s get to bed.”

“Yeah, I’m tired.”

Angela led them out of the bathroom, turning off the lights to the room on the way to her bed. She was the first to get under the covers, scooting to the far side to leave room for Fareeha. Fareeha didn’t hesitate to get in after her. She got comfortable too, leaning into Angela’s side and resting her right cheek on Angela’s shoulder. An arm was draped over the blonde.

“Goodnight Angela.” Fareeha yawned and soon she drifted off.

Angela eventually calmed down, putting an around the sleeping woman’s shoulders. “Goodnight.” She followed in Fareeha’s footsteps, eventually drifting off into peaceful sleep.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hear me out, still working on BaC. I'm having to rework some scenes and put in another. It's gonna be hella long.


	5. Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fareeha gets the chance to turn her drunken spiel into actual sentences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while since I updated. Hopefully this makes up for it?

She was warm, a comfortable weight pressed down on her. It all felt so relaxing that Angela just wanted to stay there forever. Sleepy eyes reluctantly opened when her attempt to fall back asleep failed. As she blinked up at the ceiling, her hand automatically moved, fingers running through the soft hair they found. And that’s when it all clicked.

Hand stilling, all the sleep left her system. _I’m supposed to ask her out._ Panic began to set in. She wasn’t sure if she was ready, despite all of Ana’s coaching the previous day. And then a warm arm wrapped itself tighter around her body and her anxiety started to melt away. _I can do this._

Fareeha moved her head closer, as if she was trying to bury herself in Angela’s chest. Angela tried not to giggle at the tickling sensation. Peeking down, she watched a tan hand reach up to rub at the tattoo. By the time Angela realized what was about to happen it was too late.

Fareeha flinched away, clutching at her eye. The pain burned through her sleepy haze. It felt like someone had pressed a hot coal under her eye. Touching the delicate skin just made everything worse. In her effort to try and sit up, Fareeha found herself panicking as her body slid off the edge of the bed.

Blonde hair peeked over the side of the bed, lips pursed as Angela tried to see if Fareeha was okay. Other than the grimace of pain on Fareeha’s face, nothing screamed of a broken limb. “Would it be too much to say good morning?”

It was a struggle keeping her hand away from her face. Caught between rubbing at her back with one arm and keeping the other hovering close to her face as she fought to keep it from touching beneath her eye, Fareeha let out a shaky sigh. “I’ve had better mornings.”

Angela frowned. Her body moved on its own, climbing over the bed to take the spot next to Fareeha on the floor. “Surely waking up next to me wasn’t that bad?” She leaned closer, gently nudging Fareeha’s shoulder with her own.

And Fareeha laughed. “No, of course not.” Thinking about it more made her forget about the pain for moment. It seemed ridiculous to hate waking up next to Angela. “It’s just,” she sighed again, “I can’t believe I got a tattoo.”

A thoughtful expression covered Angela’s face. “Hmm well, like I said last night, it’s beautiful.” She took a moment longer, gears already turning in her mind on what to do next. _This is where I start trying._ “Just like you.” There was no going back now.

Busy hands stilled, dropping to her sides in the next moment. Brown eyes stared down into her lap. Fareeha felt her lips tugging into a smile. “You think I’m beautiful?”

“More than that.” Angela felt that the words came easy, which was very convenient for her. She had a lot to say. “Remember when you said that we could take our time figuring this marriage thing out? I was relieved when you gave me that option because I wanted to stay selfish for just a little longer, to keep this going for even a bit more. I was just so happy to have any excuse to be closer to you.”

Fareeha tried to speak but Angela lifted a hand, gesturing to let her finish. So, she waited, paying close attention to everything Angela had to say.

“I realized that in doing that, it made me a coward. I should have told you how I felt instead of dragging this out. So first, I should apologize for that. I’m sorry Fareeha.” The heat of shame surfaced on her skin.

“Angela, it’s okay.”

Shaking her head, Angela refused the answer. “No, it’s not okay. I did everything wrong. What I should have done was ask…” Her words trailed off before she could stammer out the sentence repeating over and over in her head.

“Ask what?” Fareeha’s interest peaked when it looked like Angela was psyching herself up for something.

_Oh god. I can’t believe I’m about to say it._ Gathering up one last bit of resolve, blue eyes locked with Fareeha’s. “Hey Fareeha, I’m really, really, really attracted to you. Will you go on a date with me?” The line Ana suggested she used left her lips before she could even think of rephrasing them. Even though her face felt like the surface of the sun, she didn’t look away. _If this works, I’ll buy that old woman breakfast every day for a year._

The answering smile almost made her heart stop. Warm eyes melted away any reservations she had. Angela couldn’t help the upturn of her lips as they formed into a grin as well.

“I can’t say that I’ve been asked out quite like that before,” She chuckled when Angela just shrugged, “but I also can’t say I’ve never wanted to say yes more than I do now.”

Angela clutched a hand at her chest when her heart forgot to beat for a moment. “Yeah?”

“Nothing would make me happier.”

The only thing keeping Angela from dancing was the fact that her legs were half-asleep. “Is today good?”

Fareeha checked her non-existent watch, eyes carefully tracking the second hand that wasn’t there. “It shouldn’t be a problem. My schedule’s pretty clear.”

“I should hope so, it starts after breakfast.”

Brown eyes widened in mock surprise. “Breakfast isn’t part of the date?”

“Nope.”

“Damn, I was hoping to woo you with my impressive display of carefully stacked waffles, complete with the perfect syrup to waffle ratio.” She felt a blush spread across her face when a cool hand lightly cupped her cheek.

“As impressive as those waffles sound, you’ve done plenty to woo me.” Angela dropped her hand, when Fareeha gave her a shy smile. “I just need about two cups of coffee before I become a properly functioning adult. I’ll save you a seat though, even though breakfast isn’t part of our date.”

Fareeha started to get up, hearing the popping of her joints from finally being able to stretch out. “I’ll make sure to sit next to you then but in a non-date like manner. You know, so you don’t get the wrong idea.” Smiling, Fareeha made her way to the door and looked back to Angela when she opened it. “I’m looking forward to our extremely platonic breakfast. This whole vacation, I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure of doing that.”

Angela watched Fareeha leave, grinning long after she was gone.

-

“What’s the scoop Amari? You spent the night with Angela, yeah?” Fareeha barely stepped foot into the room when Hana dragged her from the door to her bed. After her revelation with Jesse at the pool, she didn’t want to miss out on any details. “Don’t tell me nothing happened ‘cause I _know_ that’s a lie.” After getting a closer look at Fareeha, Hana turned the conversation around. “Okay never mind all that. When in the hell did you get a tattoo?”

On instinct, Fareeha went to touch her new ink. She caught herself mid-way through. “…last night.”

“Last night? Jesse told me you two were going out for drinks…” Everything clicked, “Ohh. Drunk tattoo.” Hana took a closer look at the black lines beneath Fareeha’s eyes. “I mean, it looks pretty cool.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t look half bad,” She was going off the quick selfie she took in the hallway, “and Angela liked it a lot too.”

“Looks like Jesse gets to keep his job then,” said Ana.

Fareeha spotted her mother from the corner of her eye. Ana was sitting on one of the couches, watching everything happen between sips of her tea.

“You were going to fire him?” As far as Fareeha knew, Ana liked Jesse.

“He got my daughter drunk and coerced her into getting a tattoo on a company vacation. Yes, I would have fired him in a heartbeat. But only if you didn’t like the tattoo. I’m not that heartless,” She took another sip of her tea, “The tattoo really suits you.”

Curiosity satisfied, Hana brought the conversation back to her first inquiry. “Now that the case of the mystery ink is solved, you gotta spill the beans on what went on with you and Angela.”

Fareeha shrugged. “She helped me get to bed and now I’m going to get breakfast with her.”

Hana’s face fell at the ridiculously boring reply. “Really? You two are married, Ziegs totally has the hots for you, and…just breakfast?”

Apparently her marital status was spreading like wildfire. “Well…”

The light shined back into Hana’s eyes. “Well?”

“She might have asked me on a date too.”

“Finally,” Ana placed her cup on the coffee table and turned around to face the two sitting on Hana’s bed, “I was beginning to think Angela was hopeless. It’s good she finally found her spine.”

“What do you mean by finally?” Fareeha furrowed her brows. Something wasn’t adding up.

“My sweet, sweet girl. Angela was so helpless. Everyone knew how she felt about you, everyone but you. So I gave her a helping hand. It took me all day yesterday to coach that woman. Really, it’s a miracle she asked you out.”

“I didn’t know you were this invested in my love life.”

“Someone has to be.”

Fareeha chuckled at her mother’s response. “Of course.” She got up from Hana’s bed and headed towards the bathroom. “I’m going to get a shower and hope I live through it. This tattoo hurts a lot.”

“Call me if you need any help,” said Ana.

-

Fareeha did not end up needing Ana’s help with the shower. She found the sweet spot where the water didn’t splash her face and she was careful with putting on her shirt. Now that she wasn’t drunk, simple things like clothing had nothing on her.

_Oh god._ She dropped her shorts when the memory of last night came flooding back. Angela had definitely seen her half naked. “Okay, let’s not think about that.” Talking to herself seemed to work because she put on her shorts with no embarrassing memories to distract her.

When she left the bathroom, Hana and Ana were suspiciously quiet. They only smiled and waved at her when she went to meet Angela for breakfast. Fareeha didn’t think much on it.

In the dining room, Fareeha immediately spotted Angela. She was sitting by herself at a small table, nose buried in her phone, and two cups of coffee in front of her. Shaking her head at the sight, Fareeha busied herself with getting food. Her plate was filled to the brim with her usual, a tower of waffles and eggs. Hands full of food, she took the chair next to Angela and placed a bowl of cereal in front of the distracted woman.

“You weren’t kidding about the coffee.”

Angela blindly reached out for the bowl and grabbed hold of the spoon. Eyes never leaving her phone, she scooped some cereal into her mouth before speaking. “My only vice.”

“I think it’s important to have more than coffee in the morning,” Fareeha pointed to the stack of waffles she was currently covering in syrup, “Like these waffles.”

Angela gave the waffles a cursory glance. “At this point, you’re just eating sugar.”

“I know. Isn’t it great?”

There was a moment where Angela just stared at Fareeha with a straight face, no indication on what she was thinking. But then her lips burst into a smile, quiet laughter escaping her lips. “You look like you’re having the time of your life with those.”

“You should try it.”

“Maybe some other time.” Angela went right back to staring at her phone.

At this rate, Angela’s two coffees were going to get cold and her cereal was going to turn soggy. “What’s so interesting on your phone that we can’t eat our platonic breakfast together?”

“Mm, nothing much.” Angela leaned out of the way just as Fareeha tried to get a look.

After a few more attempts to see what had Angela so wrapped up it finally clicked. “Oh.” Fareeha reached over to give Angela’s unoccupied hand a reassuring squeeze. “It’s okay that you don’t have everything planned out. Just as long as it’s a day out with the two of us. There’s hardly anything that could happen that would make me not love this date with you.”

Blushing, Angela finally put her phone away. “Was it that obvious?”

“A little.”

Looking down at her cereal, Angela picked up her spoon again. “Thank you for the cereal. I don’t think just coffee would have been good in the long run. I just forget to eat when I’m nervous.”

“If my memory serves me well, you get nervous a lot.”

“That…” Angela stuffed a spoonful of cereal into her mouth, “That tends to happen when I’m around you.”

“Guess I’ll just have to take you out to eat whenever I see you.”

“That’s one way.”

Fareeha watched Angela down her two cups of coffee one after the other like a champ. She didn’t even realize she was smiling, just that she found it endearing how Angela gave herself a before and after pep talk, congratulating herself on drinking the now cold liquid.

“Oh, before I forget,” Angela reached into her pocket and placed a travel sized tube of sunscreen on the table, “That’s for you.”

The sunscreen was unscented, a plain label with the hotel’s name printed across the tube. Fareeha grabbed it and opened the cap to sniff the product. “Would you mind giving me a hand with putting it on?”

“Of course not.” Angela extended her hand to Fareeha, watching as Fareeha squeezed some of the sunscreen onto her fingers. “Tell me if it hurts.” She warmed the sunblock between her fingertips and carefully applied it to the tattoo.

The burn that flared with each trace of sunscreen wasn’t enough for Fareeha to complain. She knew Angela was being as gentle as she could with her feather-light touch. Angela gave her an apologetic smile when she was done, giving away the fact that she knew it hurt.

“Do you need to get anything from your room or are you ready to go now?” asked Angela.

“No, we can leave now.”

In an excited daze, Angela piled up all their dishes and nearly ran to put them away. When she came back, she offered her arm for Fareeha to take and they started their walk out of the hotel.

-

“Horus, D.va reporting in. The loverbirds have left the nest.” Hana was standing behind a plant in the lobby, sunglasses covering half her face as she watched her targets leave the hotel. Her phone was practically glued to her face as she spoke to her partner in crime.

“ _Alright, keep following them. I’ll meet up with you when I finish my morning tea.”_

Hana nodded even though she knew Ana could not see her. “Got it, D.va out.” Coast clear, she stepped out from behind the plant and started to trail the couple.

-

“Okay so this is the first place I could find that would be perfect for our date. It’ll keep you out of the sun.”

Fareeha looked up at the giant neon sign that read: Laser Tag. She wasn’t expecting it but she couldn’t say she wasn’t excited. “So, for our first date, you want me to own you in laser tag?” A smirked formed on her lips when Angela huffed at her words.

“I think you’ll find that I might give you a run for your money.”

“Oh, I know you’ll try.” She chuckled when Angela started dragging her into the building.

Since it was a slow day, it was basically the two of them facing off against each other. There was another person but they were like a ghost, entering at the same time and never to be seen again.

Ten minutes left for their session and Fareeha had no idea where Angela was. Even with the brightly glowing vest strapped to her chest, she was impossible to find. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that she was just hiding, Fareeha did get the drop on her every single time.

Just when she was about to check if Angela just left, she found her date sitting in the middle of the floor. She was clutching onto her ankle, a look of pain spread across her face.

“Are you alright?” Fareeha was at Angela’s side in a second, she had a comforting hand on Angela’s knee and waited for a response.

“Fareeha, I…” A smirk, “Got you.” Angela took her first and only successful shot, congratulating herself on avoiding getting a score of zero.

“You cheater.” Fareeha lunged forward, toppling them towards the ground. Even though Angela was pinned beneath her, she still wore that smug smirk.

“You were supposed to let me win because I’m terrible at laser tag. It’s not my fault I had to resort to alternative measures.”

“You’re still not going to win though.”

“Well, that depends.”

Fareeha furrowed her brows in suspicion. “Depends on what?”

“Maybe my date will let me shoot her for the next five minutes.”

“You know, I’d like to think I’m a good person.” She wanted to end it with a ‘but no’ except Angela was looking up at her with pleading eyes.

“So, you’ll let me shoot you?”

“Yeah,” Fareeha lowered her head and smiled at Angela’s squeal of delight, “go ahead.”

When the session finished, Angela came skipping out of the arena with double the score of Fareeha’s. She seemed extremely happy and that’s all Fareeha cared about.

-

Hana took off her helmet when the pair finally left the arena. Her feet were numb from hiding out in the same spot for an hour and she was relieved it finally ended. Keeping a safe distance behind Angela and Fareeha, Hana pulled out her phone and speed dialed Ana. It picked up after one ring.

“This is D.va reporting in. The lovebirds just finished a game of laser tag. Pharah played the romance card and let Mercy win the game.” She couldn’t help but giggle at the codes names she came up with.

_“Did they mention where they were going?”_

“No but I’m keeping a close tail on them.”

_“Good. Let me know where they go next and I’ll meet you there.”_

“Copy that Horus, D.va out.”

-

“Ah! I forget it was coming out this week.”

Fareeha eyed the movie poster Angela was gawking over; it looked like an animated movie. “Lost Tides?”

“I know, it’s silly.”

“I like these sorts of movies too. It’s not silly,” Fareeha smiled, “I just never heard of this one.”

Angela’s eyes grew wide. “You haven’t heard of it? Fareeha, it’s advertised _everywhere._ ”

A shrug. “Guess I didn’t see them.”

“We even made a shoe in promotion for the movie. How…how did you not know about that?”

That new bit of information was embarrassing. “At this point, I honestly have no idea.” Fareeha could feel her face heating up the longer she thought about how clueless she was to the movie’s existence.

“Well, I have to say that I’m sort of impressed. You’ve managed to avoid millions of dollars worth of advertisements this whole time.”

The embarrassment lessened. “Do you want to see it now? The next showing is soon.”

Angela’s lips broke out in a smile but then she quickly reigned it in. “Isn’t it a bit too cliché to watch a movie for a date?”

“It might be but something tells me my date _really_ wants to see this movie.”

Angela pursed her lips in contemplation. She kept looking between the movie poster and Fareeha. “You don’t mind?”

“Of course not.”

“Alright, if you insist.”

They ended up getting the largest popcorn they could buy, a huge assortment of ridiculously expensive candy, and one drink to share. Angela said that drinking too much soda during the movie always made her have to pee and that she’d rather not have to leave in the middle of the movie just to use the restroom.

During the movie, Fareeha learned an interesting bit about Angela. Animated movies made her cry. She confessed this after bawling her eyes out for the third time while watching. Fareeha found it endearing, especially so when, halfway through the movie, Angela asked to hold her hand. She claimed it would help her stay calm. Fareeha found herself chuckling after that because Angela still cried, she just now held her hand while doing it.

-

As the credits rolled, Hana downed the rest of her popcorn in a hurry. She turned to Ana sitting next to her and spoke between mouthfuls of food. “Looks good so far.”

Ana nodded. “Yes, but we still have to make sure nothing happens for the rest of the date.”

“So we’re just spying on them to make sure they don’t get mugged or something?”

“Something like that.”

“Oh, I thought we were just being nosy.”

“I am curious to see how their night ends. I want to know if I need to give Angela more coaching or not. It’s a labor of love Hana.”

“Well, we gotta get moving if we’re going to keeping laboring for love.”

-

It was getting later in the day and the sun wasn’t as intense so Angela thought it was okay to do something outside. They stumbled across a little fair happening.

“Fareeha, they have rides!” Angela immediately lead them to the entrance. She still hadn’t let go of Fareeha’s hand ever since the movie.

As soon as they paid for entry, Fareeha looked around. Her eyes settled on those ‘built in a day’ rides. “Are you sure you want to ride these? They don’t look that safe.”

“That’s half of the fun.”

“Dying is fun?”

Angela eyed the roller coaster, watching the way it violently shook every time a train made its circuit. “We don’t have to ride all of them.”

Fareeha eyed the other rides at the fair. Some of them seemed harmless enough. “Okay, as long as we don’t ride that roller coaster.”

The rides they chose to go on coincidentally had shorter lines, that gave them more leeway to convince the rides operators to let them stay on for a second or third go. Some of them were adamant in making them get back in line again.

“What do mean ‘get back in line’? There’s no one else waiting to get on.” Angela’s cheeks were puffed out in anger as she waited for the ride attendant to speak.

“Ma’am, there’s no special treatment here. You have to get back in line like everyone else.”

“You’re literally the only person that’s making us do this.”

“I’m just doing my job.”

“And I’m not supposed to use my shoe discount on anyone that’s not me but you know what? I just sent my friend’s son a new pair of shoes for forty percent off.”

“Good for you.”

At this point, Fareeha was pretty sure the man was just trying to get a rise out of Angela. His plan was working perfectly because she had to drag her date away from the ride lest her whole face turn red. “We’ll just get on a different ride, have a nice day.”

The man just smirked as they walked away.

“Fareeha, I had him on the ropes! Do you see him now? He’s laughing at us because he thinks he won.”

“I didn’t know you were so passionate about the merry-go-round.”

“It felt nice to sit with you as the ride spun around.”

Maybe she should have let Angela yell at the guy some more. “How about we get back on later?”

That seemed to placate Angela. “Okay.”

-

The stand worker looked on impressed as Ana shot out her third perfect star in a row. Hana was equally as impressed, arms full of stuffed prizes as proof for her boss’s mastery of the shooting art.

“I had no idea you could shoot like this.”

Ana shrugged. “I was a sniper in the military. They said I was pretty good at it.” Starting on her fourth star, something went wrong. The ammunition had ricocheted off something and bits of it came flying back at her face. She dropped the gun, hissing in pain and covering up her right eye. Blood dripped down her face from the cuts littering her face.

“Oh my god Ana, are you okay?” Hana dropped all her prizes to go check on the hurt woman. “Do you need an ambulance?”

Ana shook her head. “Just get a cab, I’m not going to die.”

Hana wrapped her arms around Ana’s shoulder and helped Ana walk away from the stand. She bent down to pick up some of her prizes because it would have been a waste to leave them on the ground.

-

About an hour after the sun set, Fareeha got a text from Hana asking her to call when the date was over. She had no idea what it was about but she put her phone back in her pocket and focused back on eating her ice cream.

She was back on the merry-go-round with Angela, the two of them enjoying desert after stuffing themselves on fried carnival food.

“Angela.” Fareeha stuck the last bit of her cone in her mouth, finishing it off quickly.

“Hmm?”

“I need to tell you something.”

Visibly nervous, Angela took another lick of her ice cream before answering. “Is it anything bad?” Relief flooded her face when Fareeha shook her head no.

“Last night I pretty much embarrassed myself in front of Jesse because it was so hard to speak,” She took a breath, “but I had a lot to say about you. How I felt about you.”

Angela stayed quiet, simply letting Fareeha speak as she listened.

“He asked me one question, ‘do you even love her?’” Fareeha grinned to herself, remembering the stream of barely put together thoughts that spilled out her mouth last night. “I had a lot to say.”

Somehow, Angela seemed to get even more quiet. Her ice cream dripped down her hand with abandon and she didn’t show any sign of caring.

“The first thing I said was about how nice you were. You’re always so thoughtful. Like today, you factored in my drunk tattoo for our date because you were thinking about me.”

“After that, I told him that I thought you were cute.” Gentle fingers touched Angela’s chin, a soft thumb running along her jaw. “I love your clumsy moments, how you’ll accidentally spill coffee on your shirt sometimes or say whatever comes to mind at the wrong moment. And, of course, you’re more than just cute. You’re beautiful and stunning. God, sometimes I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“Then I said I loved it every time you gave me a kiss on the cheek. Okay, I couldn’t really speak properly so there was some pointing involved and I basically told him I loved the tingling feeling I’d get when you did it. But the sentiment was there.” Fareeha laughed a bit before continuing. “The next part needed a little more interpreting but I basically told him that I wanted you to kiss me like you did at our wedding. That was the kiss that stopped my world.”

She heard the sharp inhale of breath. “I’ve never felt this crazy about someone before. Angela, I love you.”

An ice cream coated hand cupped her cheek but Fareeha didn’t care. Angela’s soft lips had stilled her thoughts and made her heart crawl to a stop. It didn’t even feel like she was riding the merry-go-around anymore, as far as she knew, they were in a world of their own. 

“Sorry.” Angela gave an apologetic smile when she took back her sticky hand.

Fareeha lifted her shirt and wiped away the melted ice cream from her face. “It’s okay, I hardly noticed.” She was smiling wide, too happy to let anything get her down.

The ride stopped and they were very aware of where they were when the ride attendant stared them down. “You dropped your ice cream lady.” He pointed down to the melted puddle on the floor of the ride.

Angela smirked at the man. “Looks like I did.” She grabbed Fareeha’s hand and made a run for it. “Think of it as payback for earlier.”

They ran, a trail of laughter following behind.

As they walked back to the hotel, Fareeha dug her phone out and called Hana. “Hey Hana, we’re heading back to the hotel. What did you need?”

_“Okay, so don’t get worried. I’m with Ana at the hospital.”_

“Which hospital?” Fareeha put her phone between her ear and shoulder. She grabbed Angela’s hand and waved down the nearest taxi. After Hana answered her question, she hung up the phone and hastily told the cab driver the name of the hospital.

“What’s going on Fareeha?”

Fareeha turned to Angela, looking at her with worried eyes. “My mother is in the hospital.”

“Is she okay?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out.”

-

Fareeha and Angela basically ran through the emergency room doors. They slowed down once they were inside.

Ana saw the two of them approach and sighed. “You didn’t listen to Hana, did you? I’m fine.” She brought a hand to her chest and smiled. “Although, it warms my heart to know you’d drop everything to come see me.”

“Of course I did.” Fareeha dragged a chair up to the bed Ana was lying in. “If you’re fine, what’s the eyepatch for?”

“Just got a little something in my eye. It was an accident.” She conveniently left out the part that she only got hurt because she spent the day spying on the couple. Ana made a motion with her eyes to Hana, gesturing to the stuffed animals sticking out from under the bed. Hana immediately understood and discretely kicked them all the way under.

Fareeha slumped back in her chair and sighed in relief. “So, you’re fine? Your eye’s going to be okay?”

“Yes. I’ll just have to wear this for a while. I’ll be okay.” Ana tapped the eyepatch covering her right eye.

Angela pulled up a chair next to Fareeha and laid her head on Fareeha’s shoulder. She smiled at the good news and ran a comforting hand on Fareeha’s knee.

“Would you look at that, it seems your date went well.”

Angela bit her lip, grinning at the comment. “It might have.” She reached down and took Fareeha’s hand in her own, entwining their fingers together. “It might have been perfect. Right Fareeha?”

Fareeha twisted her head and gave Angela a quick kiss. “Absolutely.”

 

 


End file.
